Council apology on its way
The Far North District Council will apologise to a Kaitaia pensioner flat resident who had to wait three weeks before a problem with her stove was passed on to an electrician for repair.
General manager infrastructure and asset management Andy Finch said the council, like other landlords, owned and was responsible for stoves and ovens in its units, and would organise repairs as a priority. Where no alternative cooking appliance was available, repairs should be undertaken within 12 hours of the fault being reported.
Despite that policy, in this case (which was an oven that would only work at maximum temperature) took three weeks to complete after the council was notified (three times over that three weeks).
“This is not acceptable, especially where it involves elderly and vulnerable residents, and we will apologise directly to the resident involved,” Mr Finch said.
“This delay was not the fault of (contractor) Laser Electrical. It was due to the request not being relayed quickly by council,” he added.
“To prevent this occurring again, I have instructed managers to ensure priority maintenance is recorded and flagged immediately, that tenants are told when repairs will be made, and that checks are in place to ensure the completed.”
Another resident told the Northland Age that she had had to wait six weeks for the contractor to wire in her washing
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been machine after she moved into a unit. Mr Finch saying it was not council policy to pay for maintenance, including connections for appliances owned by tenants.
In this case the washing machine was in a wet area, and the tenant had been was advised that a qualified electrician should directly wire it in, for safety reasons. Where the tenant was paying for work, the council did not specify tradespeople.
“My understanding is that in this case the tenant approached Laser Electrical directly to arrange connection of the washing machine. This was done when Laser Electrical staff were attending another job at the units,” he added. An Opua boatyard owner has gone to the Supreme Court in a bid to continue operating part of his business from a Far North District Council-administered reserve.
Doug Schmuck last month lost in the Court of Appeal, which quashed the Far North District Council easements allowing Mr Schmuck to use part of the reserve to work on boats.
The appeal was lodged by the Opua Coastal Preservation Society (OCPS), which has been fighting Mr Schmuck since before the Far North District Council granted easements in 2006, his business having spilled out beyond the boatyard land and on to the Wall’s Bay Esplanade Reserve, administered by the council.
For many years Mr Schmuck has tried to obtain legal rights to support use of the reserve to store, wash down, repair and maintain boats, and to discharge noise and contaminants.
The OCPS, which six weeks ago hailed the Court of Appeal judgment as a hard-fought win, argued that the minister had failed to consider the purposes of the Act, in particular that there should be no unnecessary development of a reserve.
The minister had failed to consider the terms of the resource consents Mr Schmuck obtained, that permitted him to discharge contaminants into the reserve, it said.
In 2013 the Department of Conservation’s conservator, as the minister’s delegate, granted easements that allowed the construction of a slipway, stormwater and conduit drain, and the movement of boats across the slipway to the boatyard.
The Court of Appeal quashed the minister’s decision to grant consent to all the easements except two.
Mr Schmuck is permitted to discharge contaminants and noise, and is also allowed to construct and maintain a concrete washdown area with associated discharge containment systems.
His application to the Supreme Court for leave to appeal the Court of Appeal’s decision has yet to be heard.
"This is not acceptable, especially where it involves elderly and vulnerable residents, and we will apologise directly to the resident involved."
Andy Finch, Far North District Council general manager infrastructure and asset management