Time for State Government to take control of planning at Central Coast Council

Time for State Government to take control of planning at Central Coast Council

The amalgamation of Gosford and Wyong Councils in 2016 was heralded as an opportunity for the Central Coast to look to the future with confidence and prosperity.

Unfortunately, we elected an activist council that is dedicated to an unrealistic environmental agenda that will see the region grind to a halt and create untold social issues.

The appointment of an Administrator following the folly of the first elected council has achieved nothing except higher rates and a massive land sell-off as well as an activist Planning Department hell-bent on stopping all development where some tree, bush or plant that Council’s ecologists decree are endangered. 

Alternatively, to bring economic growth to a stop Council is using every trick in the book to slow down or stop Development Applications getting approved.

Council’s Administrator, CEO and Environment and Planning Director constantly sprout the reason for delays in getting Approvals is a shortage of planning staff.

And yet they are quite happy for planning staff to be tied up in defending their illegitimate refusals of Development Applications in the Land and Environment Court.

Equally, they are quite happy to waste ratepayers’ money defending the indefensible in Court.

In June CCBR we highlighted that frustrated developers had taken 23 cases to the Land and Environment Court and again this month we report on even more cases going to Court – this time 28 cases.

At the same time the minimum waiting time to get a Development Approval is over twelve months when 40 days should be the norm and is the case with most other well managed councils.

The whole planning process at Central Coast Council has become a joke.

NSW has a major housing crisis on its hands, thanks to twelve years under the previous government. Now Premier Minns and his Planning Minister has to find a way to get 180,000 new homes built over the next five years according to a Departmental briefing reported recently in the Sydney Morning Herald.

Meanwhile, on the Central Coasts housing shortages and homelessness is a major social issue that no one should be prepared to countenance.

Right now, if all present Development Applications before Council and in Court were approved and Construction Certificates issued, builders could start work on over 3,000 homes.

At the same time there are developers and builders who are walking away from the Central Coast in frustration and disgust at how they are being treated by this Council

OOO

While housing is a major issue that of getting Development Approvals for factories and other industrial purposes are similarly being held back or refused.

The absurdity of this is that these applications are for building on Industrial Zoned land.

This Council is refusing Development Approvals on land which they claim are all sorts of threatened species.  A spurious and dishonest claim but nevertheless holding back businesses that want to invest in the Central Coast and create much needed jobs.

Industrial land is just that – industrial land.  It is not national park.

If someone wants to build a factory then they should be encouraged not provide accommodation for the Swift Parrot or the Squirrel Glider, or some so-called threatened species plant that could be cloned and turned into a weed.

OOO

It is time for Premier Minns to step in.

Sections 9.1 and 9.6 of the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act specifically deals with Ministerial and other enforcement powers.

The Minister for Planning is enabled under these provisions to appoint a Planning Administrator.

People are homeless, the economy is stalling, jobs are at risk.

Over to you Mr Premier.

Edgar Adams