1. Introduction......................................................................................................................................3

1.1. Purpose of the Activity Management Plan ....................................................................................................3

2. Activity Description .........................................................................................................................3

2.1. What We Do .........................................................................................................................................................3

2.2. Why We Do It ......................................................................................................................................................3

2.2.1. Objective of the activity .................................................................................................................................3

2.3. Overview of Management..................................................................................................................................3

2.3.1. Resources Used ................................................................................................................................................4

2.3.2. Service Delivery Review .................................................................................................................................4

2.4. Plan Framework ...................................................................................................................................................5

3. Strategic Direction ...........................................................................................................................6

3.1. Strategic Framework and Community Outcomes........................................................................................6

3.2. Strategic Priorities ................................................................................................................................................7

4. Key Issues .........................................................................................................................................8

4.1. Key issues for the next ten years ......................................................................................................................8

4.1.1. What are we planning .................................................................................................................................. 10

4.2. Changes Made to the Activity ........................................................................................................................ 10

4.3. Key Projects ....................................................................................................................................................... 10

5. Our Levels of Service ..................................................................................................................... 12

5.1. Customer Expectations ................................................................................................................................... 12

5.1.1. Customer Satisfaction Trends.................................................................................................................... 13

5.2. Planning Framework ........................................................................................................................................ 15

5.3. Levels of Service, Performance Measures and Targets ............................................................................ 18

5.3.1. Changes to the performance framework ................................................................................................ 18

5.4. Plans Programmed to Meet the Level of Service ...................................................................................... 19

6. Managing Future Demand............................................................................................................20

6.1. Predicting Future Demand for the Service ................................................................................................. 20

6.1.1. Demand Drivers and Forecasts................................................................................................................. 20

6.2. Implications of Growth/Demand ................................................................................................................ 21

6.3. Planned Programmes to Meet Growth/ Demand .................................................................................... 22

6.4. Sustainability ....................................................................................................................................................... 22

7. Financial Summary ........................................................................................................................23

7.1. 10 Year Financial Forecast .............................................................................................................................. 23

7.1.1. Financial Summary ....................................................................................................................................... 23

7.1.2. Total Income ................................................................................................................................................. 23

7.1.3. Total Funding / Expenditure .................................................................................................................... 24

7.2. Financial Forecast Summary........................................................................................................................... 25

7.3. Summary of Key Assumptions ...................................................................................................................... 26

7.4. Funding Principles ............................................................................................................................................ 26

7.5. Fees and Charges............................................................................................................................................... 27

8. Activity Specific Assumptions .......................................................................................................29

9. Significant Effects, Risk Management & Quality Assurance.....................................................30

9.1. Significant Negative Effects ........................................................................................................................... 30

9.2. Risk Management .............................................................................................................................................. 30

9.2.1. Compliance and Quality Assurance ......................................................................................................... 31

This Activity Management Plan (AMP) describes the strategies and works programmes for the

Environmental Health activity so as to meet the objective of delivering the required level of service to

existing and future users in the most cost effective way. This AMP informs the Council’s Long Term Plan

(LTP) and contributes to the goals and objectives Council aims to achieve in order to achieve community

outcomes. The AMP covers:

• A description of the activity, including the rationale for Council involvement and any significant negative

effects of the activity.

• The strategic environment (Council’s vision and goals and future demand drivers) for the activity, the

key activity management strategies and policies adopted within this environment and the main risk issues identified for the activity.

• A statement of the intended levels of service and performance targets.

This AMP should be read in conjunction with AMP Part A r/16/8/12686. AMP Part A sets out the

generic planning framework and financial and non-financial assumptions that apply to all of Southland

District Council’s (SDC) AMPs.

This AMP covers a period of 10 years commencing 1 July 2018. The main focus of the analysis is the first

three years and for this period specific projects have been identified in more detail. Beyond this period

work programmes are generally based on trends or predictions and should be taken as indicative only. All

expenditure is based on unit costs as at 1 July 2018.

Environmental health includes Council’s alcohol and food licensing services, and public health services

including the regulation of noise, nuisance, freedom camping and hazardous substances.

A complete list of functions and duties, and corresponding legislation, is in Section 5.2 Planning

Framework.

Council provides environmental health services because it is required to do so under a range of public

health related legislation. In the effective implementation of these services Council is contributing to the

purposes and objects of the legislation, such as the minimising alcohol related harm, and to the

improvement, promotion, and protection of public health within its District.

The Environmental Health activity in Southland District is focused on the achievement of the following

objective:

Enhance the health, safety and well-being of the community, through the effective implementation of a range of public health

related legislation.

The activity of Environmental Health sits within the Environmental Services Group.

The Environmental Health Officers (EHOs) are responsible for the provision of environmental health

services. This includes a 24 hour service for noise complaints (District) and freedom camping incidents

(Te Anau).

EHOs are statutory officers that must be qualified in accordance with the EHOs Qualifications

Regulations 1993; the qualification currently being a national diploma. The EHOs are kept up-skilled

through ongoing training and membership of the respective institutes of environmental health and alcohol

licensing.

The activity continuously reviews service standards and procedures, monitors customer feedback, new

developments and best practice standards and undertakes new projects. The officers are active

participants in various liaison groups such as the Alcohol Liaison Group, Recreational Water Liaison

Group, and the Southern cluster of the New Zealand Institute of Environmental Health.

The performance of the activity is measured with the use of reporting sourced from Council’s Pathway

system.

The Environmental Health Business Unit (the Unit) consists of:

The Manager of Environmental Health, who is also a practising EHO and Alcohol Licensing Inspector (ALI).

Two EHOs, who are also appointed as ALIs.

One Customer Services Officer (with Animal Control).

Contractors and casual employees that provide after-hours noise control and freedom camping services.

No major assets are required for undertaking this group of activities, other than those used generally by

the whole organisation. The assets used are minor in scale and non-critical in nature, and are maintained

and replaced on an as-required basis. All field officers have vehicles and use tools such as thermometers,

measuring devices, and a noise meter; along with computer and communication equipment. Information

about the Environmental Health assets and consumables is kept in an equipment register and maintenance

log. Assets are renewed in accordance with Council procedures, such as the vehicle replacement

procedures administered by Services and Assets. There is no formal asset management planning required

for this activity.

Section 17A of the Local Government Act 2002 requires all local authorities to review the cost-

effectiveness of its current arrangements for delivering good quality local infrastructure, local public

services and performance of regulatory functions at least every six years.

The Council engaged Ms Alicia MacKay to complete a service delivery review of Regulatory and

Environmental Services, and the final version was presented and approved by the Regulatory and

Consents Committee on 6 April 2017.

The findings of this review have been incorporated into this Plan.

The report’s general recommendations for all of Council’s regulatory services were:

1. Meaningful performance management

(a) Focus on outcomes. Focusing performance measurement more on impacts than processes.

(b) Customer satisfaction. Reliable customer satisfaction data is a vital tool to inform Council

decision-making and best target resources to align with community priorities.

2. Collaboration/shared services. SDC should continue to promote shared services, with provisos.

3. Quality assurance. Services would benefit from a consistent and codified process for peer review

and quality assurance.

4. Enforcement and prosecution approach. A framework is recommended.

5. Online lodgement and electronic processing. An opportunity to better reach the community and

deliver services with greater convenience and automation.

6. Competitive procurement. To ensure maximum value for money is being achieved and to align with

SDC’s Procurement Policy, contract arrangements should be regularly reviewed, with a competitive

tender process undertaken.

The report’s specific recommendations for the activity were:

1. Retain the activity in-house, complemented by third-party providers for after-hours service.

2. Procurement review - This department should review how outsourced services are procured to ensure

ongoing value for money. A competitive tender process would test the market for improved price or

quality of service, and may reveal unknown contenders.

3. Quality assurance - Implement quality assurance procedures for alcohol licensing and health

inspections, which should include peer review. This provides an avenue for continuous improvement

and ensures ongoing performance in these activities.

4. Performance management - Implementing a customer service performance metric, particularly for

those that are not currently measured, will provide a reliable evidence base for future service decisions.

5. Improve Alcohol Licensing processing times - Consider making additional resources available to

improve the proportion of licences processed within target timeframes. Electronic lodgement and

processing functionality may assist with efficiency in this area.

The AMP framework is illustrated in Figure 2-1. Corporate information common to all AM Plans has

been included in a separate document AMP Part A (r/16/8/12686). District-wide information and

strategies are documented in the main body of this plan.

Figure 2-1 Asset Management Plan Framework

The Council has adopted a Strategic Framework that identifies where the Council wants to be in the future (vision) and the outcomes it aims to achieve to meet the

current and future needs of communities for good-quality local infrastructure, local public services, and performance of regulatory functions (community

outcomes). The framework also outlines how it will achieve these (mission and approach) and its resulting strategic priorities. Additional information about the

Council’s strategic framework is included in AMP Part A (r/16/8/12686). Table 3-1 outlines how the activity contributes to the Council’s community outcomes

using a benefits mapping diagram. The full levels of service and performance management framework (including internal measures) is presented in section 5.3.

Figure 3-1: Activity Contribution to Council Outcomes

The Council has identified four priority areas in response to the key strategic challenges facing the Council and the community to achieve the Vision and

Community Outcomes (refer Strategic Framework in AMP Part A r/16/8/12686 for more details). The contribution that the activity makes to these Strategic

Priorities are shown in Table 3-1.

Quality assurance framework in place (as referred to in Section 2.3 Overview of Management Promote further collaboration with other councils and agencies.

Verification of effective services through the analysis of KPIs. Complete another Section 17A review by 2023.

Continued combined policy development with the Invercargill City Council (ICC) and Gore District Council (GDC).

Contribute to the SoRDs ease of doing business work by:

• ensuring fees are benchmarked, reasonable and transparent; and

• having effective online lodgement and electronic processing.

All processes are recorded in Council’s Promapp system.

Successful transition of all food businesses to the Food Act 2014 regime by the statutory transition end date of 28 February 2019 (discussed in Section 5.2 Planning Framework).

Develop an enforcement and prosecution policy / guidelines.

Ensure the Freedom Camping Bylaw 2015 conforms with Council’s tourist destination workstream.

Process mapping. Implementation of a quality management system for food verification of food businesses.

Education of food businesses. Implement new key performance indicators. Responding to local concerns about the suitability of the Freedom Camping Bylaw.

Actively participate and support the Alcohol Liaison Group working together agreement (Police, Public Health, Councils, and Fire and Emergency New Zealand). Contribute to an effective review of the Combined Local Alcohol Policy by 2019.

Review the Keeping of Animals, Poultry and Bees Bylaw 2010 by 2020. Assist with the review of the Gambling Venue Policy and the TAB Venue Policy by 2019.

Table 3-1: Activity Contribution to Strategic Priorities

The most important issues relating to the Environmental Health activity for the next 10 years are shown in

Table 4-1.

Context: The s.17A recommendations are detailed in section 2.3.2 “Service Delivery Review”- they are briefly:

1. Meaningful performance management 2. Collaboration/shared services 3. Quality assurance 4. Enforcement and prosecution approach 5. Online lodgement and electronic processing 6. Funding mix and policy 7. Competitive procurement.

Options: The Regulatory and Consents Committee has already endorsed the recommendations and staff are required to implement these recommendations.

Implications: Project work as listed in 4.3 Key Projects.

This is a large issue, including the purchase of software, its development and implementation. Decision have to be made in partnership with other departments of Council, as many of these improvements are in common.

Context: Freedom camping is a polarising community issue that is becoming increasingly topical. Some freedom camping sites are increasing in popularity, and new hot spots may emerge.

Options: Council is required to regulate freedom camping on Council controlled land under the Freedom Camping Act and bylaws made under it. Tourism strategy and management are related work streams.

Implications: Increase in patrol services, increase in request for service (eg litter services); and tourism destination connections. Also, further requests to amend the Freedom Camping Bylaw, more enquiries and requests for information.

Context: Council has various statutory obligations with respect to asbestos, such as public health, building safety, litter, and contaminated land.

Greater awareness of asbestos through new Worksafe Regulations may result in an increase of asbestos matters being raised with Council. For example, WorkSafe has recently released this image (where asbestos containing materials can be found in a house):

The costs of asbestos disposal at the regional landfill is high - $230/tonne. Fly dumping with asbestos containing materials is potentially going to be a problem, with not only the cost of disposal, but also contaminated land implications (tagging etc) for the dump site.

Options: Council funds the clean-up of fly dumps on Council controlled land, and administers the Litter Act.

Wellington City Council has recently set its landfill fees so that the asbestos waste is $10 cheaper per tonne to dispose of than general waste ($158/tonne) - for the purpose of encouraging the lawful disposal of asbestos.

Implications: the Activity will need to have effective procedures relating to asbestos incidents. There may be more requests for service, enquiries and requests for information.

Council may wish to consider incentivising the lawful disposal of asbestos, perhaps through the Waste Advisory Group.

Context: More notifications to Council of meth contaminated buildings are expected, e.g. from Police, Public Health, concerned tenants or neighbours. To date SDC has only had one notification (in 2011) of a meth drug lab, in other parts of New Zealand meth-contaminated buildings demand a lot of staff time.

Options: Council is required to complete its statutory obligations concerning meth contaminated buildings, such as public health, building safety, and contaminated land.

Implications: the Activity will need to have effective procedures relating to meth incidents. There may be more requests for service, enquiries and requests for information.

Context: Currently Council retains exclusivity in verifying certain types of food business, such as restaurants. Verification means the onsite audit. It offers verification services for other types of food business that are open for any approved verifier, for example a service station selling pies can choose to use an SDC verifier, or an approved verifier can travel from Auckland.

From 2019 the Government will review Council exclusivity. Should it be removed, then Council food verification services will be open to competition from verifiers from other councils or companies.

Council’s registration and compliance functions under the Food Act will continue, not being part of the Government review.

Council’s verification fees are currently fixed fees.

The health licensing business unit, that provides services under the Food Act, is currently fully funded from fees.

Options: Council is required to continue with food licensing services until 2019. At that point Council may continue to offer services in the competitive market, and also cross boundaries if there is a demand. Licensees will benefit as the availability of Council’s services will ensure verification fees are kept relatively low.

An option is entering into a shared service with the ICC, to cooperate in the provision of verification series in the region. Whether or not that happens, SDC staff would wish to retain Council’s brand going forward.

It is proposed to amend verification fees to an hourly rate, rather than the fee being fixed. Advantages are: incentivises the business manager being well prepared for the verification, rewards good performance, and better efficiency as staff time on site will be minimised.

Council may choose to provide 10% rates funding for the health licensing business unit. This would recognise the public good components of the service, and assist with concerns from the food industry of the cost of compliance. Examples of public good services are the provision of information to the public, and enforcement activities.

Implications: Regardless of what the Government decides, the business unit will be well set up to offer food verification services to food businesses in the District and will be able to continue doing so.

The food industry is sensitive to fee changes and will need to understand the reasons for the proposed change to an hourly rate for verifications, and that a good performing business will pay no more than currently.

The introduction of 10% rates for the business unit (about $12K) will need to be funded.

Table 4-1: Key Issues for the Activity

An action plan is to be developed concerning the Section 17A recommendations.

The funding mix component of the Section 17A recommendations is expected to be resolved during the

consultation process for the next Long Term Plan.

The Activity has allowed for some budget for additional freedom camping patrols and litter clean ups.

Staff time will be allocated to developing procedures for meth and asbestos related work.

Table 4-2 summaries the key changes for the management of the Environmental Health activity since the

2015 Activity Profile.

The implementation of the Sale and Supply of Alcohol Act 2012 has been completed. The implementation of the Food Act 2014 will continue until 2019.

The Ministry for Primary Industries has set the expectation that a food audit for a food control plan should take around two hours. This has had a significant effect on workload.

This review was completed in early 2017. The activity will need to implement these improvements.

Increasing numbers of tourists and the various factors that influence freedom camping means that this issue is becoming more demanding on Council’s services.

The Council has since made a Combined Local Approved Products Policy. Currently there are no approved products for sale.

These issues are discussed in Section 4.

Table 4-2: Key Changes to the Activity

Significant projects include:

• Transition of all food businesses to the Food Act 2014 regime by the statutory transition end date of 28

February 2019.

• A quality assurance framework. Funding for this project has not been determined, and may involve the

use of a consultant. This project may also be combined with other activities such as dog control and resource planning.

• A quality system for food licensing services that is likely to be required to be fully implemented from 2019.

• Promapping of processes, funded through current staff time.

• Review Council’s regulatory approach with regard to untidy and overgrown sections.

• Develop procedures for asbestos and meth related work, and train staff as required.

• Develop an enforcement and prosecution policy or guidelines, combined with other activities such as

dog control and resource planning.

• Reviews of the Keeping of Animals, Poultry and Bees Bylaw 2010, Gambling Venue Policy, TAB Venue

Policy, and Combined Local Alcohol Policy.

• Amendments as required to the Freedom Camping Bylaw 2015 to conform with local demands and with the tourism destination work stream.

• Online lodgement and electronic processing, for alcohol and food licensing.

• A mobile inspection platform is developed, in cooperation with the Building team.

• Improving reporting and business intelligence tools.

• The continuation of the freedom camping shared service with DOC in the Te Anau Basin, funded from

the environmental health business unit and the Te Anau Community Board.

• Ensuring that staff have appropriate processes and equipment to remain healthy and safe.

• Attendance at meetings concerning the management of Oreti Beach. The environmental health issue is the removal of litter (including abandoned vehicles). Both DOC and Te Ao Mārama have raised non-environmental health concerns (dune erosion and destruction of Toheroa from vehicles) and advised of a desire for the beach to be closed to vehicle access. This issue may be raised for the Long Term Plan by DOC and Te Ao Mārama.

This section outlines the key drivers for levels of service, including customer expectations,

legislative/regulatory requirements and Council outcomes. Section 5.3 details what level of service will be

provided and the performance measures and targets which will be used to monitor performance.

In providing services it is important to understand what the customer using the service expects and if

those expectations may change. The table below details the key customer groups, their expectations and

any issues that this raises for the activity.

Community conversations, direct feedback, customer service surveys

Response to health related nuisance complaints (noise, and nuisance).

Freedom camping services.

Litter control services.

Benefits from all the services below.

Confidence in Council’s licensing services.

The public expects public health services to be delivered to a high standard and that good practice is followed. At the same time services are also expected to be efficient. These issues are discussed in Section 5.2 Planning Framework below.

Submissions to Annual Plan, direct feedback to officers

Alcohol and food licensing.

Registration and inspection/auditing of premises.

The industry expects fees to be affordable and reasonable, and receive good customer service.

The Ease of Doing Business work that Council is participating in may result in a reduction in the business establishment fee, to encourage new business.

The alcohol licensing business unit is funded from rates by 10% (public good), the health licensing business unit 0%. This plan suggests that the latter should also be 10%.

There may be a discussion among the local councils about standardisation of fees. This may have impacts on the level of rate funding of the activity.

Submissions to Annual Plan, direct feedback to officers

Alcohol liaison group, recreational water, food control steering group, general environmental health.

The service expects Council to fulfil its statutory obligations.

Direct feedback to officers

Freedom camping shared service in the Te Anau Basin.

DOC expects Council to meet its obligations under any signed memorandum of understanding.

Direct feedback to officers

Fire safety in alcohol premises, hazardous substances liaison.

Fire and Emergency New Zealand expects Council

to follow agreements entered into.

Direct feedback to officers

Air quality, recreational water, nuisances, sewage discharges, general complaints.

The two councils need to work together to ensure that issues are dealt with effectively.

Direct feedback to officers

Alcohol licensing, liquor control bylaw, noise control.

The Police expects Council to follow agreements entered into.

Direct feedback to officers

Alcohol liaison group, recreational water, food control steering group, cross boundary issues, combined local approved products policy, combined local alcohol policy.

Councils need to work together to ensure that issues are dealt with effectively.

Direct feedback to officers

Reporting related to resource consents, building consents, and land information memorandum.

A timely, efficient, and accurate service.

Direct feedback to officers

Recreational water group. To work with other agencies for the effective management of recreational water.

Figure 5-1: Customer Expectations

Nuisance Complaints Survey

The nuisance complaints survey provides Council with useful feedback about its response to noise and

environmental health complaints. It also allows reporting on whether levels of service (as outlined in the

Council’s Long Term Plan) are being achieved. The survey consists of four questions, three of which ask

about the helpfulness of staff and time to resolve the complaint and the outcome and a further question

giving the respondents the opportunity to make any comments.

Helpfulness of Staff

In 2016/2017, 99% were satisfied with the helpfulness of staff when they contacted Council which is a

slight increase from the 97% in 2015/2016. A breakdown of responses is shown below. There was a

decrease in the proportion of respondents who were very satisfied compared with the previous year.

2012/2013 2013/2014 2014/2015 2015/2016 2016/2017

No % No % No % No % No %

66 63% 74 66% 82 73% 92 94% 58 82%

25 24% 25 22% 24 21% 3 3% 12 17%

9 9% 8 7% 3 3% 3 3% 1 1%

5 5% 5 4% 4 4% 0 0 0 0%

105 100% 112 100% 113 100% 98* 100% 71 100%

Table 5-1: Satisfaction - Staff Helpfulness

Time to Resolve Complaint

In 2016/2017 88% respondents were satisfied with the time to resolve the complaint which is slightly

lower than the 90% result in 2015/2016.

2012/2013 2013/2014 2014/2015 2015/2016 2016/2017

No % No % No % No % No %

44 44% 39 39% 60 55% 70 76% 47 70%

34 34% 31 31% 18 17% 13 14% 12 18%

13 13% 14 14% 15 14% 4 4% 3 4%

10 10% 15 15% 16 15% 5 5% 5 7%

101 100% 99 100% 109 100% 92* 100% 67* 100%

Table 5-2: Satisfaction - Timeliness

Outcome

In 2016/2017, 79% of survey respondents were satisfied with the outcome of their complaint. This is

noticeably down on the 89% that were satisfied in the previous year.

2013/2014 2014/2015 2015/2016 2016/2017

No % No % No % No %

65 61% 72 65% 67 71% 36 56%

21 20% 18 16% 17 18% 15 23%

7 7% 4 4% 3 3% 6 9%

13 12% 16 15% 8 8% 7 11%

106 100% 110 100% 95* 100% 64* 100%

Table 5-3: Satisfaction – Outcome

External KPI questions related to:

(a) Percentage of complaints responded to within two working days from the date of receipt.

(b) Percentage of applications for liquor licensing and managers’ certificates are processed within 35

working days.

96% In 2013/2014 the result was 96%.

88% - The main reasons for this result are (1) an officer on extended sick leave in Te Anau and (2) some phone problems with an officer in Te Anau, who was receiving some calls. 242 of 275 were investigated with timeframe.

93% - 220 of the 235 complaints were investigated within two working days.

The main reasons for this result are (1) failure to reach after hour’s ranger and (2) officers delay in responding.

84% - Implementation of legislation other than the Sale and Supply of

74% relates to a number of premises renewal applications that are on backlog.

71% - 361 of the 507 applications were

Alcohol Act (the Psychoactive Substances Act, Dog Control Review, and other bylaw reviews) have diverted some staff hours away from alcohol licensing. Some renewal applications have been delayed, though are considered a lower priority as licensees may continue to trade).

These premises can still operate under their existing licences. The reason for the result is the implementation of new legislation that has proven time-consuming for the team over the last couple of years. Once systems and procedures for the new Food Act are largely in place, staff will be able to focus on clearing this backlog.

In 2014/2015 the result was 84%.

completed within 35 working days.

(1) the licence renewal backlog continues to be reflected in this result (2) some errors in the holds-data not being loaded

(3) managers and special licences are 90%

The other methods of measuring customer service trends include measuring the number of requests for

service that are related to the Community Housing activity and recommendations from any s17A reviews.

The active RFS codes relating to Community Housing include:

CHR&MU – Council Housing/Flats repairs

Legislation, regulation and Council’s existing strategies and policies mandate or influence some of the

levels of service and performance targets we set, as illustrated in the table below for the Environmental

Health activity. A full description of the Council policy and planning framework impacting AM Plans is

included in the AMP Part A (r/16/8/12686). Some key requirements are tabled below.

Council has various statutory functions that are carried out by the Environmental Health activity,

summarised in the following table.

General powers and duties in respect of public health, nuisance abatement, insanitary buildings.

Abatement of nuisances or any conditions likely to be injurious to health or offensive, that are not specifically regulated by another agency; such as vermin, sewage nuisance, accumulations, dead animals or offal, and domestic burning or smoke.

Registration and inspection of premises that are required to be registered - hair salons, commercial camping grounds, funeral directors, offensive trades and saleyards.

The regulation of the keeping of animals in the District.

Partnership with Environment Southland and Public Health South in the management of recreational water quality, covering freshwater, marine, and shellfish gathering sites.

Asbestos is regulated by its own set of regulations that were introduced in 2016. Council has an agreement with the other agencies in regard to roles and responsibilities.

A new standard is being prepared for meth labs and meth contamination. Comment about new P labs is provided in “Assumptions” below. Council has a role in respect to buildings (including dwellings) that have been contaminated by meth users.

Health promotion work has been hindered by the recent focus on new legislation. This will be completed as staff time permits, examples include public pools or private water supplies.

Changes:

1. The Keeping of Animals Bylaw 2010 is required to be reviewed by 2020. The main implication is the possible introduction of a licensing system to keep certain animals in a town, eg a conditional licence to keep pigs or horses.

2. The new asbestos regulations are expected to increase awareness of this issue, and accordingly it may be expected that more asbestos related work will be notified to Council.

3. In particular there may be an increase in illegal dumping of asbestos-containing waste and contaminated land incidents.

4. The increasing use of meth in New Zealand is expected to result in notifications to Council of meth contaminated buildings.

Registration and auditing of food premises to ensure that food for sale to the public is safe and suitable.

Changes: This legislation is being implemented in accordance with a statutory transition timetable, ending in February 2019.

This is having a large impact on the Activity and is a key focus until the legislation is fully implemented in 2019.

In 2019, the Government will make a decision whether councils should continue with an exclusive role in the verification of certain types of food business. Should the Government decide to remove this exclusivity, then Council’s current auditing functions would change from being mandatory to discretionary. Either way, Council will be able to continue with the auditing role as it will have an approved quality system and hence be an approved auditing body.

Bylaws made under the Local Government Act for the purpose of managing trading in public places and the creation of alcohol free areas.

Changes: These bylaws will need to be reviewed by 2023 and 2025 respectively. Currently there are no reasons to change these bylaws.

Hazardous substances are stored and used safely.

Changes: The Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) is reviewing the effectiveness of the Hazardous Substances and New Organisms Act 1996. A possible implication is an increased role for councils, though only informal feedback has been sought by the EPA at the time of writing this Plan.

Permits freedom camping and allows councils to control adverse effects.

Changes: This issue is becoming increasingly topical and also may be impacted by Council’s destination management work stream. Other

communities may request a similar patrol service, and so the activity may be required to manage the delivery of new patrol services.

Inspection and regulation of insanitary buildings in partnership with Building Control.

Changes: Nil.

Litter control.

Changes: Nil. But see comments about asbestos under “Health Act” above.

Control of the location of retailers of approved psychoactive products.

Changes: The Policy is required to be reviewed by 2019.

The responsible use of gaming machines and TAB facilities.

Changes: The policies are required to reviewed every three years.

The safe and responsible sale and supply of alcohol.

Changes: The Combined Local Alcohol Policy is required to be reviewed in 2019.

The District is currently not, subject to statutory deadlines under the National Environmental Standards for Air Quality. This is a major issue within the Gore and Invercargill airsheds, with statutory deadlines of 2016 and 2020 respectively.

Winton complies with air quality guidelines but the levels are close to the guidelines.

Changes: At the time of writing the Winton Community Board is considering proactive responses to this issue. Possible responses are:

(a) Extend the SDC wood burner incentive programme by another three years.

(b) Introduce a good wood scheme in Winton. (c) General and targeted education (eg landlords and heavy polluters). (d) Compliance measures for irresponsible polluters. (e) Seek intelligence about what types of burners are causing the problems. (f) Introduce a clean air loan scheme for Winton. (g) Promote the free home energy health checks by Awarua Synergy. (h) Increase awareness of subsidies already available, possibly in

conjunction with g) above. (i) Introduce a SDC air quality bylaw for Winton.

Environment Southland could be tasked with some of these responses. There would be a cost to Council for some of these, in particular options (a), (f) and (i).

Figure 5-2: Planning Framework

This section outlines the levels of service (LoS ), performance measures and targets from the performance

framework for the activity detailing what the Council will provide, and to what level or standard:

• LoS are the outputs that are expected to be generated by the activity. They demonstrate the value being

provided to the community or reflect how the public use or experience the service. A key objective of activity planning is to match the level of service provided with agreed expectations of customers and their willingness to pay for that level of service.

• Key Performance Indicators (or performance measures) are quantifiable means for determining whether a LoS has

been delivered and are generally broken into customer measures (which focus on how the public uses or experiences the service) or technical measures (which tend to be used internally to track performance or measure what the organisation does).

• Performance targets are the desired levels of performance against the performance measures.

The levels of service provide the basis for the management strategies and works programmes identified in

the AMP. By clarifying and defining the levels of service for the activity (and associated assets), Council

can then identify and cost future operations, maintenance, renewal and development works required of the

activity (and associated assets) to deliver that service level. This requires converting user’s needs,

expectations and preferences into meaningful levels of service. An overview of the context for levels of

service is discussed in more detail in AMP Part A (r/16/8/12686).

Table 5-4 details the levels of service, performance measures and performance targets for the activity. The

italicised/grey measures are monitored for internal management/self-assessment purposes and as such are

not reported publicly in the LTP. The table sets out the Council’s current performance and the targets it

aims to achieve within the next three years and by the end of the next 10 year period.

Table 5-4: What we plan to do and out levels of service (LoS)

The levels of service and key performance indicators have been reviewed following a benefits mapping

exercise to ensure Council’s performance framework is focussed on measuring the activity benefits at the

outcome and objective level.

1. The Section 17A review recommended the following concerning LoS:

(a) Meaningful performance management

(b) Focus on outcomes. While regulatory activities have a statutory mandate, they play a

significant role in keeping the community safe and healthy. Focusing performance

measurement more on impacts than processes, as per Productivity Commission

recommendations, would help SDC to better understand how effectively regulatory services

achieve desired outcomes. Customer satisfaction. Reliable customer satisfaction data is a vital

tool to inform Council decision-making and best target resources to align with community

priorities. Current methods for measuring customer satisfaction are unable to provide regular,

consistent, representative data. Enhancing these tools might include developing new methods

of engagement, increasing the frequency of the triennial customer satisfaction survey,

implementing pop-up surveys at the conclusion of service or adding qualitative probing

questions.

Improve Alcohol Licensing processing times - Consider making additional resources available

to improve the proportion of licences processed within target timeframes. Electronic

lodgement and processing functionality may assist with efficiency in this area.

The specific details of the changes for the 2018-2028 are:

• New measures have been added that focus on outcome.

• The customer service LOS has been expanded to include licensees, and is intended as an internal measure.

• Adjustments to wording and targets to simplify reporting information.

• Grouping of LoS statements and removal of LoS categories

The list below details any projects, initiatives, programmes or expenditure that the Council is planning to

undertake to ensure that the level of service is achieved and/or to address any gaps between the targets

and current performance. Where there are costs/projects related to this work, these are included in the

financials in section 7.

• Ensure sufficient resourcing for the activity, including making allowance in the environmental health

business unit budget to increase technical support and increasing the EHO position assigned to the health licensing business unit from 0.8 to 1.0 FTE.

• Work towards a quality assurance framework.

• All processes are recorded in Council’s Promapp system, and working smarter solutions identified and

adopted to optimise efficiency.

• Implement new IT improvements such as online lodgement and electronic processing, improved

reporting tools, and mobile technology.

This section describes how demand for Environmental Health is likely to change over the period of the

plan, the impact any changes are likely to have and whether the Council is planning to make any changes

to the activity as a result.

The Council has prepared corporate wide assumptions/projections for growth drivers (population,

land use, dwellings, tourism) which have been used as the basis for assessing future demand for the

service. These projections are detailed in the assumptions section of the LTP and AMP Part A

(r/16/8/12686).

The factors influencing demand for Council’s Environmental Health services are summarised in Table 6-1.

The table also details the demand that has been anticipated in this plan for each of the key drivers of the

Environmental Health activity.

Sports clubs will be impacted by an ageing population, with fewer drinkers.

Other factors such as pre-loading, drink-drive laws, off-licence price difference, and smoking laws also have affected the number of drinkers at licensed premises, and some taverns have closed in recent years.

Stereo noise complaints are associated with youth.

These factors have a negative effect on the viability of some alcohol licences, but will not necessarily mean that there will be fewer licensed premises, as factors such as tourism balance this out.

Fewer RFS concerning stereo noise may be expected.

Increases in the number of tourists has implications in regard to freedom camping, such as an increase in litter/nuisance complaints, new hot spots, and complaints about alleged unregistered camping grounds.

Increasing tourism will provide more drinkers at licensed premises, providing some balance. More food businesses may open to take cater to the tourist market.

More alcohol licensees are using employees with visas, who tend to be employed for the short term. This may increase number of manager’s certificate applications.

Freedom camping services may be expected to increase, should more local communities wish to have local patrol services. The litter clean up budget may also need to increase gradually.

More complaints concerning unregistered camping grounds may be expected.

The number of alcohol licensing applications may be expected to increase gradually.

The number of food businesses may increase slowly.

Uneven population growth may result in an increase in complaints about overgrown/untidy sections and dilapidated buildings.

An increase in untidy section complaints may be expected.

The possible introduction of a licensing system to keep certain animals in a town, when the Keeping of Animals Bylaw is reviewed.

There may be an increase in asbestos related work, in particular there may be an increase in illegal dumping of asbestos-containing waste and contaminated land incidents.

Council may expect to see some notifications of meth contaminated buildings, currently there are none.

The Food Act 2014 is having a large impact on the Activity and is a key focus until the legislation is fully implemented in 2019. Longer term it is expected that food related work may decrease.

Possible increased freedom camping related work.

A steady stream of bylaws and policies for review.

Health promotion work may be completed as staff time permits, for example relating to public pools or private water supply.

These factors suggest that the demand on the Activity will on balance increase slowly.

Table 6-1: Demand Drivers

The demand on the activity is expected to gradually increase over the years. The current level of

resourcing may also need to increase as described in Section 5.4 above.

In addition, it may be necessary to resolve pressure points by the use of either contractors or through new

shared services.

New local freedom camping patrol services may be able to be resourced by a local ranger, and could be

funded by both Council and the local ward budget. Council will likely to need increase the funding of the

Environmental Health Business Unit if new services are introduced.

The litter clean up budget may need to increase incrementally. Council will need to consider a potential

large increase in clean-up costs for asbestos containing litter dumps.

The introduction of an hourly rate for food inspections may be necessary to increase efficiency, to replace

the current flat fee. Another benefit is that this would reward good performing food licensees who are

well prepared for the visit and operate well. A key issue to be aware of in doing so is to ensure that the

mileage recovery is considered fair by the industry, in particular licensees in the Mararoa Waimea Ward.

Council may need to review its regulatory responses in regard to untidy sections, possibly as part of the

proposed project to develop an enforcement and prosecution policy / guidelines. For example the ICC

has a bylaw that regulated untidy sections.

The Animal Control team could take an active role in the event that a licensing system was introduced for

the keeping of animals.

There are no planned programmes other than the project work described in this Plan to improve services.

The Local Government Act 2002 requires local authorities to take a sustainable development approach

while conducting its business, taking into account the current and future needs of communities for good-

quality local infrastructure, and the efficient and effective delivery of services.

At the Environmental Health activity level, a sustainable development approach is demonstrated by the

following:

• Making adequate resourcing provisions in the budgets.

• Promapping of processes to ensure staff knowledge is retained.

• Quality assurance to ensure services are maintained to an acceptable standards.

• Participation in Council benchmarking to provide assurance to customers of an efficient service.

• New performance measures to demonstrate the quality of the service.

The following section contains financial information for the activity which has been generated from the

Council’s Fulcrum budget platform as at «detail month/year». All of the financial shown includes inflation

(unless otherwise stated). The costs associated with the Environmental Health are included in the

Regulatory Services Activity Statement in the Council’s LTP.

The full set of financial assumptions are included in AMP Part A and any activity specific financial

assumptions that impact on the activity are listed in Section 7.3.

The following graphs/table summarise the financial forecasts for the activity over the 10 years.

The Environmental Health activity is largely planning for activity levels consistent with current levels.

The Environmental Health activity is funded from fees and charges, and by rates. Looking at recent years,

there are no major changes reflecting in the financial summary. Trends for income and expenditure in

future years reflects the anticipated inflation rate utilised during this forecasting process.

Acquisition and renewal of assets relate to vehicles used by the activity and scheduled replacement

intervals according to Council’s vehicle policy.

Table 7-1: Financial Summary excluding depreciation

The Environmental Health activity is funded from fees and charges, and by rates.

Income is based on historical data with inflation applied over the 10 year period, amounting to an overall

increase over the period of 18%.

Table 7-2: Total Income

Operating cost are derived from using historical data. There is a clear upwards trend visible, reflecting an

inflationary increase amounting to 27% over the full extend the 10 year period.

Acquisition and renewal of assets relate to vehicles used by the activity and scheduled replacement

intervals according to Council’s vehicle policy.

Table 7-3: Financial Forecasts

The assumptions made in respect to Environmental Health are:

• Increasing the current EHO from part-time to full-time. This has been demonstrated as being required

under Sections 4.1 Key Issues, 5.2 Planning Framework, 5.4 Plans Programmed to Meet the Level of Service, 6.2 Implications of Growth/Demand, and 6.4 Sustainability.

• That Council will choose to continue providing verification services under the Food Act 2014, following

the outcome of the statutory review of the role of councils, that will be conducted by the Ministry of Primary Industries after 1 March 2019. Currently the role is mandatory for councils; and possible outcomes post-review are the status quo, the provision of services being discretionary, or an expansion of mandatory services.

• At least a 10% rates for the health licensing business unit will be approved.

• That Council will approve food verification fees changing from fixed to an hourly rate. The purpose of

this is to increase the efficiency of audits, the hourly rate being an incentive to be well prepared for the audit and rewarding good performance. The hourly rate will need to be calculated to ensure that food businesses are not penalised due to their location (in particular licensees in the Mararoa Waimea Ward).

• Disposal of asbestos illegal dumps will be funded by Council reserves if and when required, not by the

activity. This disposal has not been budgeted for.

• Council will amend the Alcohol Licensing Fees Bylaw and remove the 30% annual fee discount when the alcohol licensing budget no longer has reserves.

• At the time of writing it is unknown what IT solutions will be decided upon, and when these may be

purchased. Solutions have be acceptable to the IT team, and also it is desirable that the same products are used across other services within Council, also by other local councils. However allowance does need to be made in the budgets for IT software purchases. Examples include a mobile inspection platform, and online lodgement.

• A quality management officer/consultant will be available to assist in the development of a quality

system across Environmental Services.

• That a shared administration officer resource will be approved for the Environmental Services group.

• The health licensing business unit will make provision for IANZ services with respect to a proposed

food licensing quality system.

• That the Chief Executive will approve unbudgeted expenditure, if warranted, for work such as new freedom patrol services, meth / asbestos incident response. Speculative work has not been budgeted for.

• That policy and bylaw reviews will be completed by the Corporate Planning team with no internal

charging, including work relating to the reviews of the Combined Local Alcohol Policy and the Local Approved Products Policy.

• The health licensing business unit will make provision for licensing costs associated with the Ministry

for Primary Industries Public Register User, for food businesses. It is expected that these costs will be passed on to councils in 2019. These costs are currently $800 US dollars per user per year. To keep costs down only one user from Council will be appointed.

• That Council will extend the Winton Wood Burner incentives scheme. It was scheduled to end in

December 2017.

Section 102(4) (a) of the Local Government Act 2002 requires each Council to adopt a Revenue and

Financing Policy. This Policy must state the Council’s policies in respect of the funding of both capital and

operational expenditure for its activities.

The Environmental Health activity is funded from fees and charges, and by rates.

For all components of this activity, fees and charges should be recovered where possible. It is practical to

identify and charge licences. However, the ability to recover costs from persons creating nuisances and

infringing bylaws is limited by legislation. The remaining components are funded by the General Rate as

the activity is considered to benefit the whole community.

The tables below show a summary of Council’s fees and charges proposed for the 2018/2019 year,

compared to those for the 2017/2018 year. Additional information can be found in the Council’s

Schedule of Fees and Charges.

These fees are set by Statute. The fees collected are those contained in the Sale and Supply of Alcohol

(fees) Regulations 2013, and are subject to the fees that may be prescribed by a bylaw authorised by the

Sale and Supply of Alcohol (Free-setting Bylaws) Order 2013.

Table 7-4: Fees and Charges

Council has made a number of assumptions in preparing the AMP. Table 8-1 lists the most significant

assumptions which relate specifically to the Environmental Health activity. For assumptions which apply

across Council refer to AMP Part A.

Continuation of the freedom camping shared service in the Te Anau Basin.

There have been no indications from DOC to discontinue the service, not does SDC have any reasons to do so. Should DOC wish to discontinue the service, SDC would have to operate its own ranger service in Te Anau.

The District will continue to not be subject to any statutory deadlines under the National Environmental Standards for Air Quality, unlike Gore and Invercargill that have designated airsheds.

That Environmental Health will have some involvement with air quality in Winton.

Winton complies with air quality standards, but the levels do come close to exceeding limits. At the time of writing it is unknown what role the Environmental Health team will have in managing air quality in Winton. Refer to Section 5.2 Planning Framework for more details.

That the Government will not create new functions for councils.

This legislation is being reviewed for effectiveness. It is unknown whether councils will have new functions.

That the Government will decide to remove Council exclusivity verification of certain types of food businesses.

The Government has the ability to remove councils’ verification exclusivity post transition in 2019, however it is unknown what decision it may make. The registration and compliance functions of food licensing will continue regardless.

Council will be an approved agency for food licensing services and it is intended to continue with this function as there will be a demand.

That few P Labs will be notified to Council.

Advice from the Police is that they believe that methamphetamine is being brought into the District, and not being manufactured here.

That Corporate Planning will manage bylaw and policy review processes.

The Corporate Planning team was given the role of managing bylaw and policy review processes in 2016 and this means that the workload on the activity is reduced to advisory only.

The activity is not planning on a greater holistic role with freedom camping.

Discussions are occurring within Council about tourism and destination management, and freedom camping is a sub-topic of the wider tourism issue.

That this work will not create a significant demand on the Activity.

The number of septic tanks that may be discharging directly to water ways in the District is unknown. The Activity has a role (with Building Control) in responding to these incidents.

Table 8-1: Activity Specific Assumptions

The significant negative effects that the activity may have on the local community are listed is the table

below.

The investigation of requests for service can be adversarial, as there is always a person making an allegation, and the person who is subject to the allegation. Officers are trained to be unbiased, consistent and reasonable so that both parties are treated fairly. On a larger scale the formulation or review of policy and bylaws is always subject to a spectrum of views, with some parties aggrieved at the outcomes.

Trained staff who observe good practice.

Licensing fees can be viewed as being a constraint on business.

Transparency of fees and considering any feedback on fees during the annual plan process.

Some people believe their rights are restricted by regulations such as those managed by this activity.

The Environmental Services Unit provides education and information on legislative requirements.

Table 9-1: Significant Negative Effects

Table 9-2 summarises the key risks associated with this activity. The detailed risk framework and process

followed is detailed in the AMP Part A (r/16/8/12686) .

SDC is in the process of reviewing its risk management approach and the corporate risk framework and

register. This will be part of the AM improvement plan.

Established procedures, training, effective tracking and

No changes

information systems and KPIs concerning quality of service.

Established procedures and training, staff who meet statutory qualifications.

No changes

Maintain a strong focus is maintained on health and safety, both in terms of the legislative framework applicable and process management within the team.

No changes

Table 9-2: Activity Risks

The purpose of this section is to demonstrate that a quality assurance process for the development of this

AMP has been undertaken to ensure compliance with the requirements of the LGA 2002 and any other

applicable requirements.

The author of this plan has consulted with Mrs Nicole Taylor (Corporate Planner) and Mr Bruce Halligan

(GM- Environmental Services).