Introduction

Eighty-four out of eighty-five local authorities responded to this survey. In the last survey in 2005/2006 all 85 local authorities responded to most of the questions. Results from former surveys, beginning with the 1996/1997 report, are available on the Ministry for the Environment’s website.

Purpose of the survey

The purpose of the RMA survey is to:

• help the Minister for the Environment monitor how the RMA is being put into practice

• highlight trends over time in implementation of the RMA, as well as areas where performance by local authorities may require greater attention

• promote good practice under the RMA and improve local authorities’ performance

• enable each local authority to compare its performance with others

• provide local authorities with information so they can more accurately respond to enquiries about RMA processes.

The survey does not measure the performance of the RMA in delivering better environmental outcomes. Nor does it measure how well individual local authorities deliver these outcomes – this measurement occurs through state of the environment monitoring and reporting at both the national and local level.

However, the comparisons drawn from this survey do allow us to:

• identify local authorities that are complying with statutory requirements and recommended good practice

• stimulate discussion about differences between similar local authorities

• promote benchmarking and improvements in performance.

The 2007/2008 survey questionnaire

Under section 35 of the RMA, local authorities are required to record details on the resource consent applications they process (see information box on the following page). This survey draws on that information. A copy of the questions we asked in 2007/2008 is provided in appendix 6.

Core questions on resource consent processing statistics, time and cost are similar to those in earlier surveys. Changes in this survey include expanding the sections seeking information on Māori participation in RMA processes and good practice in resource consent processing.

The 2007/2008 questionnaire was again made available for completion online. All of the local authorities that responded to the survey submitted their responses using the electronic questionnaire. The only authority not to respond was Rangitikei District Council, due to staffing constraints.

Presenting the data

Throughout the report, where you see (n = ##), this indicates the number of local authorities that answered the question(s). Please note that 84 out of 85 local authorities responded to the 2007/2008 survey, one fewer than in the previous survey in 2005/2006.

Changes to improve the survey questionnaire mean that some results cannot be compared over all nine surveys. In these instances, the most recent comparable data has been analysed and presented. Full reports on each survey since 1996/1997 are available on the Ministry for the Environment website.

To highlight long-term trends and/or marked differences between this survey and others, this report flags results that have increased or decreased by 50 per cent or more.

In most cases, percentage results have been rounded in the report to the nearest whole number. However, unrounded data from the 2005/2006 and 2007/2008 surveys is used when calculating changes between surveys. This can result in some apparent discrepancies.

Information boxes dotted throughout the report are used to clarify terms and provide good practice guidance for local authorities.

Detailed data

Detailed data provided by local authorities is contained in the appendices. To enable useful comparisons to be drawn from the data, local authorities with similar characteristics have been grouped. Appendix 1 shows which group each local authority has been placed in, along with the number of consents each has processed. The local authority groups used in this report are:

• regional councils

• unitary authorities, including the Chatham Islands Council

• territorial authorities that process a similar volume of consents:

  • Group 1: 0–110 consents
  • Group 2: 111–300 consents
  • Group 3: 301–650 consents
  • Group 4: 651–7000 consents.

Limitations of the data

Some local authorities had difficulties answering questions where information was either not recorded or was held in a format that did not allow it to be readily extracted. In these cases, either no or partial data was provided. This means a full picture cannot be presented for all questions in this survey. There was also variation in the interpretation of some questions and some results were estimated. Where this occurs it is noted in the relevant sections of the report.

Some local authorities that had difficulties answering particular questions in this survey have advised that they will have improved systems in place to allow them to answer survey questions more fully in the future.

Next survey

The next RMA survey will cover the 2010/2011 financial year, a year later than originally scheduled. By delaying the survey in this way the Ministry intends to capture the effects of the Resource Management (Simplifying and Streamlining) Amendment Bill, which is due to come into effect later this year. The survey questionnaire will be released to local authorities before 30 June 2010 and responses will be collected after 30 June 2011. As is usual practice, prior to the next survey we will review and improve survey questions where possible.