NORTHLAND BRANCH
TRAINING AND NETWORKING EVENT
held on
7TH DECEMBER at 1.30PM
at
MAY BAIN ROOM, CENTRAL LIBRARY
WHANGAREI
Welcome:
Branch Chair Jamie Nikora opened the meeting welcoming members, new members, and guests.
Attendance:
Far North District Council: Niki Clark, David Currie, Greg Machin, Peter Martin, Kevin Piper, Brendan Rosetta, Chris West
Far North Holdings Limited: Mark Henwood
Kaipara District Council: John Dowden, Kerry Hewson, Jamie Nikora
Whangarei District Council: John Berridge, Riki Commins, Stuart Ferris David Hughes, Sam Nobes, Markus Magueflor,
Guests:
BOINZ CEO: Nick Hill.
BOINZ Board Representative: Peter Laurenson.
Apologies:
Apologies were received from FNDC, WDC and KDC members unable to attend due to work commitments.
Guest Presentation
BOINZ CEO: Nick Hill
Nick updated members on some key market and BOINZ areas including
- Industry statistics
- Key points of the Institute's Briefing to Ministers (Phil Twyford and Jenny Salesa)
- Progress in respect of HR Division's International placements and an overview of the full recruitment service provided.
- The Annual Conference and SBCO Forum venue and dates for 2019
- Activity and uptake of the Accredited Building Surveying (ABS) programme
- Membership Statistics
- The Institute's Training Strategy and Business Plan for 2019
- An overview of the Qualifications (Certificate and Diploma)
- Observations around inhibitors to partaking in training in today's boom environment
General discussions with Nick confirmed we are in a tough but good place with training packages being made available to Councils and the private sector over the next 12 months.
Council Updates
Whangarei DC
- There has been a steady increase in residential consent applications particularly new residential houses. This trend has continued for the last 3 years and is now over 43% of all activity.
- The Hundertwasser Art Centre has been consented and construction is now underway
- WDC is working with other BCA's in the affordable housing market and with modular providers to streamline the consenting process.
- WDC has been working actively in the E portal area and is looking to expand its user group, subject to confirmation from the senior leadership strategy group.
Far North District Council.
- FNDC went "on-line" with building consent applications, as of 1st November, with electronic applications now being accepted.
- FNDC Building Officers are now processing consents using "Trapeze"
- FNDC has been holding regular "Building Practitioners" meetings and have created a practitioner's webpage providing an open communication medium for tradesmen & general public.
- Both residential and commercial building consent applications are being received in increasing numbers.
- FNDC now contracts out 70% of its building consent applications to consultants. Several inspectors also regularly fly up from a South Island consultancy firm to help tackle our inspection timeframes. Inspection timeframes are 10 days on average.
- Several building officers resigned over the last 12 months causing a few staffing and competences issues with-in the unit.
- There have been some significant claims against the BCA in the last 12 months.
- There are a number of large residential and commercial projects in the pipeline. 350 houses are required for Kerikeri Retirement Village. A Chinese consortium have proposed a large development in Whatawhiwhi for 940 residential houses, and the local Ngawha geo-thermal power plant is proposing to double its capacity and size.
- There is a significant demand for property development and residential housing, being bought on by a nationwide housing shortage and migration of families and businesses to this region coupled with a shortage of building officers and competencies requirements, workloads are at an all-time high and the FNDC BCA is under some pressure.
- Kaipara District Council.
- BC numbers for 2017 vs 2018 are 721 v 719, so consents are on par year to year; However, the value of works has significantly increased given the complexity of consents coming through in 2018.
- 2017 had $118,550,000 worth of work while 2018 has $121,550,000 to date.
- KDC is moving to a paperless system. Currently, KDC print's consents and accept paper consents to scan to the system. They are now moving to accepting only digital consents and printing will be the responsibility of the applicant or agent.
- BOINZ Board Representative: Peter Laurenson.
- Peter provided an informative presentation on MBIE's Building Code HUB. Members indicated they found it easy and fast to use but lamented on the lack of MBIE promotion around this valuable tool.
- General discussions then intimated strains on resources facing all council and the need to provide a regular good training base to grow staff and to encourage individuals into these important BCO roles.
Matters Arising
Upcoming BOINZ Training:
ADV005 Difficult to Consent - Auckland - 25/01/2019
TA010 Light Steel Framing - Auckland - 22/03/2019
TA002 Building Controls - Auckland - 05/04/2019
Questions regarding upcoming training or local training needs should be directed to Jason Goei. training@boinz.org.nz or 04 473 6003
Correspondence
Various updates and information from BOINZ, BRANZ, build magazines
General Business:
Peter Martin advised that he was going to investigate options for "plumbing" as a topic for the next meeting.
Next Branch Meeting.
23-3-2019
Peter Martin
Northland Branch Secretary
