Canterbury's regional council is putting in new procedures to manage a backlog of consent applications.

In the last six months of last year, Environment Canterbury were penalised more than a million dollars due to processing delays.

But since December, 75 percent of applications have been completed within the legal time frame of 20 working days.

Chair Peter Scott says they're ensuring there's a clearer path to prevent a backlog.

"There's also legislation change that has changed in the last 6 years, so every time the Government puts a new piece of legislation- that affects our consenting."

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