Offensive trade guidelines

All businesses that operate, trade, manufacture or undertake the following activities are regarded as operating an offensive trade:

• Blood or offal treating
• Bone boiling or crushing
• Collection and storage of used bottles for sale
• Dag crushing
• Fellmongering
• Fish cleaning
• Fish curing
• Flax pulping
• Flock manufacturing or teasing of textile material for any purpose
• Gut scraping and treating
• Nightsoil collection and disposal
• Refuse collection and disposal
• Septic tank desludging and disposal of sludge
• Slaughtering of animals for any purpose other than human consumption
• Storage, drying or preserving of bones, hides, hooves or skins
• Tallow melting
• Tanning
• Wood pulping
• Wool scouring

These premises must be registered and inspected on an annual basis, and comply with a number of legal requirements including: 

The Health Act 1956

Health (Registration of Premises) Regulations 1966  

Trade Waste Bylaw 2018

Please note, it is not permitted to establish any Offensive Trade business without written consent from the Council and the Medical Officer of Health. 

All conditions imposed by the Council or the Medical Officer of Health must be complied with before the business can be registered.

Before applying for a registration certificate, check if you also need:

Resource consent

Your proposed business must comply with District Plan rules. We recommend getting in touch with our planning team to discuss any requirements by phoning 0800 732 732 or emailing general@southlanddc.govt.nz.

Find out more about resource consents.

Building consent

Your proposed business must comply with the Building Act 2004. We recommend getting in touch with our building team to discuss your project and clarify any requirements by phoning 0800 732 732 or emailing building-cs@southlanddc.govt.nz.

Further details are available on the building services page.

Here is a checklist of our requirements:

• Completed health registration application form 
• Payment of the application fee 
  • Refer to our fees and charges for the application fee
  • Refer to the application form for instructions on how to make a payment

One year unless withdrawn earlier by Council.  If the licence holder wants to continue use of the area after the expiry date, a renewal is to be applied for prior to expiry.

Fees for other registered premises are available here.

A full schedule of Southland District Council’s fees and charges is available here fees and charges page.

The first inspection is carried out prior to trade starting and the issue of a registration certificate, and yearly thereafter.

For advice on registering a new offensive trade or making changes to an existing business please contact the health team by email health@southlanddc.govt.nz or phone on 0800 732 732.

To contact our other teams Planning, Building, and Water and Waste email general@southlanddc.govt.nz or phone 0800 732 732.