Before you or your company begins work which connects to Council's live waters network, you need to be recognised by Council as an Approved Contractor.
This is a requirement so Council can ensure an individual possesses the required knowledge, skill and safety awareness to connect to and work on Council's live water supply, wastewater or stormwater networks. Companies that employ a licensed contractor are known as approved contractors. However, the license is awarded to the individual, not the company. This can also be referred to as Approved Contractors (AC's) and Licensed Reticulation Employees (LRE's).
If an application is approved, company details of the applicant are included on Council's list of approved contractors and available to the public.
List of companies who have Council approved contractors (169kb pdf)
Submit an application to be an Approved Contractor
There are four work categories which require Approved Contractor status:
A - Water live: 20mm, 25mm and 50mm connections to mains up to and including 150mm internal diameter.
B - Water general: All size connections to all size mains
C - Water filling station use: Permits the use of a water filling station
D - Drainage: Manhole entry and all connections to live sewer and stormwater systems
Within the application form you can select a single, multiple, or all four categories.
What's required
This form will require you to upload multiple documents in order to submit your Approved Contractor application. It is recommended you have these documents ready before starting the application form as there is no 'save and complete later' option. The documents need to be saved in DOC, DOCX or PDF format and be less than 30mb each in size.
There is no cost to apply and we aim to have a response on applications within two weeks, depending on staff availability.
Guideline documents
General requirements to become an Approved Contractor (89kb docx)
Licensed Reticulation Employee application guide (qualifications and CV) (35kb docx)
SHE and CV requirements (48kb docx)
Water Shutdown Exercises (44kb docx)
Templates and editable forms - to be completed and uploaded as part of the application form.
Statement of performance for standpipe use form (65kb pdf)
Licensed Reticulation Employee declaration form (66kb pdf)
Contractor agreement of understanding form (67kb pdf)
Hygiene Code of Practice questionnaire
This needs to be completed prior to submitting your application. Upon successful completion of the questionnaire, you will receive an email which will be uploaded as part of the application.
Complete the Hygiene Code of Practice questionnaire
Other documents required - you will need to upload the following as part of the application form.
- Certificate of SHE pre-qualification
- Insurance certificate to demonstrate a minimum Public Liability Insurance of $5,000,000
- Insurance certificate to demonstrate Motor Vehicle Insurance of $2,000,000
- CVs of your company
- LRE CV and relevant qualifications (depending on category required)
- LRE qualifications (where required)
- Completed Water Shutdown exercises (for Category A or B applicants) - see the 'guideline documents' section above for exercise form
Procedure and policy documents - all applicants must read and understand the following.
Apply to be an approved contractor
I’m already an Approved Contractor, how do I add a new LRE?
For changes to LRE’s or new LRE’s, please email waterscontractsupport@tauranga.govt.nz with the documents required for LRE’s (CV and qualifications relevant to the category, see 'Guideline documents' above) and changes required.