Tuesday, October 24, 2017
ISLAND View Holiday Park operations manager Melany McCoy says an ineffectual council has caused a year-long delay in a building project. Photo Sven Carlsson OB4003-03
Sven Carlsson
FRUSTRATION with a slow building consent process has the directors of Island View Holiday Park thinking seriously about litigation.
Co-owner Lorne Simmons said they did not want to take the Opotiki District Council to court, but were at a loss to think what else they could do.
“If we take them to court, we’ll win,” he said.
“But that means the ratepayers have to pay.”
Mr Simmons said the council was supposed to be proactive and supportive of positive development.
Operations manager Melany McCoy said the holiday park, which had 250 guests over the long weekend, would have more than 500 guests during the summer season and had outgrown its reception area.
Crammed into one end of the small camp shop, the current reception area was able to process only one customer at the time.
“This causes a long queue to build up in summer,” Mrs McCoy said.
A new reception building with a wide customer service desk, where four computer work stations stood ready, had been built to eradicate the bottleneck.
“We have waited at least a year for the building consent.”
Mr Simmons said there was a boundary issue around the building, but the two different lots were owned by the same people and ultimately the same company. “We are now one year behind schedule on this project,” he said.
“We’re getting close to litigation.”
Mr Simmons said the owners had invested many millions of dollars into upgrading the camp and it brought money into the Opotiki economy.
However, Opotiki District Council planning and regulatory group manager Gerard McCormack said the council had not received the building consent application for the concrete slab until Thursday, October 12 this year.
“The application is currently being assessed and we expect to be able to make a decision in the near future,” he said.
Mr McCormack said there were outstanding matters relating to other buildings on the camp site, which had been erected without the necessary consents being in place.
“We are working through these with the owner and expect them to be resolved in the near future.”
The council was bound by its statutory obligations under the Building Act and other legislation.
“Issues such as this arise from time to time when works are undertaken without the relevant consents being in place prior to the work starting,” Mr McCormack said.
“I would therefore strongly encourage those undertaking building works to ensure that they have all the paperwork in order to avoid disappointment and additional costs at a later stage.”
Mr McCormack said the district council was happy to have early conversations with people doing building works to ensure everyone was aware of their obligations.