Latest news with #AnneDuncan
Otago Daily Times
06-05-2025
- Business
- Otago Daily Times
Council back on top of LIM applications
Invercargill City Council. Photo: Abbey Palmer The Invercargill City Council is once again meeting statutory requirements for Land Information Memorandum (LIM) applications, after an unprecedented surge in demand caused some delays earlier this year. Council planning and building services manager Anne Duncan said a buoyant property market, as well as changes to lending requirements, had put significant pressure on LIM and property file request timeframes. Under the Local Government Official Information and Meeting Act, the council was required to process LIM requests within 10 working days, and property file requests within five working days. However, during the first quarter of this year, the council had taken up to 15 working days to process LIM requests, she said. "With extra support and additional resource in the final stages of recruitment, both LIMs and property file requests are being processed within those statutory timeframes, which is great news for our customers." In January, February and March this year, LIM application volumes had nearly doubled in comparison with previous years. "Our property records team has worked hard to minimise disruption to customers as much as possible. "We're really pleased that we have been able to address this issue as we take our commitment to meeting statutory obligations seriously." As well as an active property market throughout the Deep South, applicants had told council that some lenders and insurance companies were also making LIM requests a mandatory requirement for potential buyers hoping to secure a new property, Ms Duncan said. "We have really appreciated the community's patience as we worked through the process of addressing our resourcing, to get those timeframes back on track for our customers." The council was recruiting for two positions within the property records team, and in the short term had engaged temporary resourcing. Existing staff had also worked overtime to reduce the backlog while resourcing was being addressed. — APL
Otago Daily Times
28-04-2025
- General
- Otago Daily Times
Council meeting resistance on pool costs
PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES The cost of getting a pool registered in Invercargill has irked some residents not wanting to pay up. According to a Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act response from Invercargill City Council, all residential pools were required to be on the council's pool register and inspected every three years. But the $245 price tag — which covers the inspection and administration — has tested the patience of some. "Our main challenge is that people are not enthusiastic about having an inspection and do not want to pay for it," council manager planning and building services Anne Duncan said. She also highlighted an issue with people not realising their spa was considered a pool, unless it met certain criteria due to size or the type of lid. The total number of active pools on the council's register was just 63, most of them spas. In the past year, 24 pools were inspected, two of which failed. It was the owner's responsibility to regularly check the compliance of covers, locks, latches and fences. At Southland District Council, the cost of a pool inspection was $225, with the number of inspections for the year to January 2025 totalling 81. A lot of pool owners were unaware of requirements, and failed inspections were normally related to pool barriers, a spokesperson said. "Most of the new pools added to our register are from our inspections within the district rather than people advising council they have a pool." In the event of a failed inspection, of which there were 40 for the year to January 2025, next steps included advising the owner what was required, sending reminders, and issuing a notice to fix. The council's website said there were an estimated 60,000 in-ground swimming pools and 100,000 small, heated pools nationwide, "quite a few" of which were in the Southland district. — Matthew Rosenberg, Local Democracy Reporter — LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.
