Whakatāne District Council is undertaking a pilot scheme that will see 1000 of its physical property files digitised by May. Once the pilot scheme has been completed, all remaining files – nearly 25,000 in total – will also be digitised, but during both phases of the digitisation process, property files will still be accessible to the public.

The Council’s Customer and Information Services Team Leader, Justin McGeough, says the process will ultimately make for a much more convenient system, with digitised files being available via a new online service from early in 2018.

“The digitisation is being undertaken by Desktop Imaging in Wellington, and there will be a full quality assurance programme in place to check that each digital version is consistent with the physical file,” he says. “The first batch of 1000 files, together with any subdivision, lease or liquor licensing files related to those properties, has been dispatched and we will be using this part of the process to identify any issues before the bulk of the files go away for processing in June.”

Any request for a file that is undergoing digitisation will see the processing of the file prioritised, with the goal of supplying a digital version within one working day. Files can be requested over the phone, via email (info@whakatane.govt.nz) or by coming into the Council.

It is expected the full digitisation process will be completed by the end of 2018.