Councils duty to monitor and gather information

Section 35 of the Resource management act sets out the duties of District Councils to gather information, monitor and keep records.

It is this section that provides the requirement to monitor compliance with resource consents and to make that information available for the purposes of transparancy.

It has been established that the Marlborough District Council have been unable to monitor their frost fan requirements per the Plan and their imposed conditions of consent. However, it is useful to read the full section to be aware of the legal requirements and to know your rights when requesting infromation. Remember, they work for you, not the other way around.

35 Duty to gather information, monitor, and keep records

(1) Every local authority shall gather such information, and under ­ take or commission such research, as is necessary to carry out effectively its functions under this Act.

(2) Every local authority shall monitor—

(a) The state of the whole or any part of the environment of its region or district to the extent that is appropriate to enable the local authority to effectively carry out its

functions under this Act; and

(b) the efficiency and effectiveness of policies, rules, or other methods in its policy statement or its plan; and

(c) The exercise of any functions, powers, or duties delegated or transferred by it; and

(d) The exercise of the resource consents that have effect in its region or district, as the case may be; and

(e) in the case of a regional council, the exercise of a recog­nised customary activity in its region, including any controls imposed under Schedule 12 on that activity ,— and take appropriate action (having regard to the methods available to it under this Act) where this is shown to be necessary .

(2A) Every local authority must, at intervals of not more than 5 years, compile and make available to the public a review of the results of its monitoring under subsection (2)(b) .

(3) Every local authority shall keep reasonably available at its principal office, information which is relevant to the administration of policy statements and plans, the monitoring of resource consents, and current issues relating to the environment of the area, to enable the public—

(a) To be better informed of their duties and of the functions, powers, and duties of the local authority; and

(b) T o participate effectively under this Act.

(4) Every local authority shall keep reasonably available at each of the offices in its region or district such of the information referred to in subsection (3) as relates to that part of the region or district.

(5) The information to be kept by a local authority under subsection (3) shall include—

(a) Copies of its operative and any proposed policy statements and plans including all requirements for designations and heritage orders, and all operative and proposed changes to those policy statements and plans; and

(aa) copies of all material incorporated by reference in any plan or proposed plan under Part 3 of Schedule 1; and

(b) All its decisions relating to submissions on any proposed policy statements and plans which have not yet become operative; and

(c) In the case of a territorial authority, copies of every operative and proposed regional policy statement and regional plan for the region of which its district forms

part; and

(d) In the case of a regional council, copies of every operative and proposed district plan for every territorial authority in its region; and

(e) In the case of a regional council, a copy of every Order in Council served on it under section 154(a) ; and

(f) Copies of any national policy statement or New Zealand coastal policy statement; and

(g) records of all applications for resource consents received by it; and

(ga) records of all decisions under any of sections 93 to 94C ; and

(gb) records of all resource consents granted within the local authority’ s region or district; and

(gc) records of the transfer of any resource consent; and

(h) Records of all extensions of time periods and waivers granted by it under section 37 in relation to applications under section 10 (which relates to existing uses), section

125 (which relates to lapsing of consents), and section 184 (which relates to lapsing of designations) during the preceding 5 years; and

(i) A summary of all written complaints received by it during the preceding 5 years concerning alleged breaches of the Act or a plan, and information on how it dealt

with each such complaint; and

(j) Records of natural hazards to the extent that the local authority considers appropriate for the effective discharge of its functions; and

(ja) In the case of a territorial authority, the location and area of all esplanade reserves, esplanade strips, and access strips in the district; and

(jb) in the case of a regional council, records of every customary rights order relating to its region; and

(k) Any other information gathered under subsections (1) and (2).