Building Accreditation recommended to be awarded

An accreditation assessment of Palmerston North City Council's Building Services Division is recommending Council retains its accreditation as a Building Control Authority subject to reducing delays in obtaining inspections.

IANZ (International Accreditation New Zealand) assessed the Building Services Division earlier this month. It has verbally advised that, based on their findings, they will recommend to Ministry of Building Innovation and Employment (MBIE) that PNCC retain accreditation as a Building Control Authority (BCA).

Peter Eathorne, General Manager Customer Services says the overall finding from IANZ is that Council is performing its BCA functions as required to a very high standard. With the exception of the inspection timeframes, there are no significant causes for concern.

"We are working hard to clear the inspection timeframe backlog and have made significant progress. As of Friday last week, inspection timeframes for all types of inspections was five working days - this is inside Council's own timeframe period, albeit at the upper end. We will work to bring the time-frame down to three days as recommended by MBIE."

Mr Eathorne says IANZ were very complimentary of the attitude and professionalism of the staff, and the technical decisions were regarded as being very good, and at times excellent.

"I'm really proud of our team, the assessment is a rigorous process and they have performed admirably."

"We have been asked to make some business improvements and ensure our online services project, that we plan to rollout towards the end of the year, incorporates appropriate record keeping," says Mr Eathorne. "My team will work towards making these improvements."

ENDS

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