Tauranga City Council’s Building Inspection team has developed protocols which will allow staff to resume building inspections when the move to COVID-19 Alert Level 3 takes effect next week.
These include strict standards relating to hygiene, physical distancing, only using electronic plans loaded onto their own devices and appropriate PPE (personal protection equipment) use. The protocols will also be used by the council’s compliance and monitoring inspection teams.
Regulatory and Compliance General Manager Barbara Dempsey said building control officers have been calling people who had inspections booked prior to the pandemic lockdown to check whether they still require an inspection. If so, bookings will be rescheduled in the same order as they were when lockdown began.
“We anticipate that construction companies will want to get work underway on their projects as soon as possible, so we’ve taken steps to ensure we have as many inspectors available as possible for the first few weeks.”
Barbara said the council also has an additional inspection team member starting work on Tuesday, which will add to the building team’s inspection capacity, and is also preparing to trial ‘virtual inspections’.