Executive defends consultant use
West Coast Regional Council chief executive Darryl Lew is defending the council's use of consultancy firms for resource consents, while also hitting back at criticisms made from Cr Allan Birchfield.
Cr Birchfield — a Greymouth goldminer and former regional council chairman — claimed that the council's consents and compliance team had grown from four in his day to 13, yet the council was still using North Island consultancy firms.
Consultants were delaying and declining gold mining water consents and asking "stupid" questions as they were unfamiliar with the industry and the West Coast, Cr Birchfield claimed.
But Mr Lew said the regional council employed seven full-time compliance or consents officers, and stood by the integrity of its resource consent process and the professionalism of its staff and contracted consultants.
"The most recent quarterly report to council presented yesterday shows all 27 resource consents issued during that quarter were processed within the statutory timeframe permitted."
The council employed consultancies at times to help with resource consent work, especially when there was an increased workload or reduced in-house capacity, Mr Lew said.
That was the case now, with several notified applications on the books, including the Mananui Mineral Sands Mining consent.
"When consents officers are managing multiple large-scale applications progressing to hearings, they require extensive assessment and often occupy most of an officer's workload."
Mr Birchfield claimed that Wellington consultants had asked questions a competent local consents officer would not have.
Mr Lew said the consulting firms all had to follow the same statutory process under the RMA and a consent authority had to have enough information to make a fully informed decision.
"Consultants are expected, as are council consents officers, to seek further information where needed, including site visits, local mapping, or input from regional staff to ensure the specific context of an application is understood."
The costs fell on the person applying for the consent, whether the work was done in-house or by a consultant.
The council had an open door for applicants and the agents submitting applications on their behalf and was happy to speak to them directly, Mr Lew said.
Cr Birchfield also claimed that council compliance staff had been taking police escorts on site visits recently and turning up without notice after heavy rain had muddied creeks.
Mr Lew said staff had not taken police escorts to inspect mines.
It was a requirement of resource consents for mining operations to control water during rainfall events, he said.
• LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.
By Lois Williams
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