Public consultation has now closed on the refreshed Auckland Film Protocol, after being open on Auckland Council’s ‘Have your say’ portal for three weeks.
The consultation phase allowed members of the industry who hadn’t participated in the earlier industry engagement to provide feedback.
Once the feedback from public consultation is collated, the draft refreshed Auckland Film Protocol and public feedback will be presented to Auckland’s 21 local boards. Those elected members, who have designated authority to approve permits to film on many public spaces, will also have the opportunity to provide formal feedback.
Following that process, the final proposed refreshed protocol will be presented to Council’s full Environment and Community Committee, along with a summary of feedback and proposed key recommendations for adoption.
That process is expected to be completed by the end of September 2019, when we will have a more relevant and current protocol to guide industry and all other stakeholders in Auckland’s billion-dollar screen production sector.
The protocol, first adopted by Auckland Council in 2013, outlines the conditions and guidelines for filming in Auckland. It was last refreshed to include standardised region-wide fees in 2015.
The protocol outlines Council’s commitment to be film-friendly and enable filming in our public places – while managing and balancing the impact that filming has on our region, communities and businesses. It contains the rules filmmakers must follow when filming in Auckland, and guidance on the process to get approval to film in the region from Screen Auckland.
Since 2015 there have been a number of changes to legislation, new technologies such as drones have become more commonly used for filming, and the Auckland Unitary Plan has been adopted.
It was time to make sure the protocol is up to date and reflects Council’s current policies, regulations and processes.
The first part of the process involved Council specialists from teams including heritage, resource consents, unitary plan, social policy and bylaws, local and regional parks. It also involved Auckland Transport and Panuku Development Auckland.
Local boards, the staff of the Tūpuna Maunga o Tamaki Makaurau Authority, which governs Auckland’s volcanic cones, iwi and the screen industry were also involved.
A refreshed document was presented to the Environment and Community Committee in June, and approval was granted to go out to public consultation.