Central Coast Council’s Development Application (DA) times have blown out to an average of 122 days according to fresh figures released at the February 28 meeting.
The last six-monthly performance report on Development Applications was back in July 2022. The results at the time were considered poor.
In response, Administrator Rik Hart announced he had hired six permanent and five contract staff and was in the process of recruiting eight new roles on top of that.
Council’s chief inquisitor Kevin Brooks of Erina spoke before the February 28 meeting and said he was astounded by the latest result.
“Last July, the Administrator threw yet more ratepayer money at this problem and said he hoped for a big improvement,” he told CCN.
“Instead, there has been a 44 per cent deterioration in performance since this big improvement was promised.
“The assessment time has actually doubled since the fourth quarter of 2020/21 when David Farmer commenced as CEO and Mr Hart became Administrator. They are accountable for these results and need to explain.”
Hart told CCN Council is now processing more DAs than it is receiving.
“Bear in mind we have the highest number of DAs in the state to process,” he said.
“We are still 17 people short (in the planning department) that we have funds for and are fully funded in the budget, yet we are struggling to get staff.
“The other problem is a lot of people left in the early days .. when the Council was under threat of being wound up.
“The other hiccup that is going on at the moment is the planning portal from the Department of Planning that has not been easily working and that has been a problem for all councils.”
Hart had previously told CCN that the backlog in DAs was also due to having to assess developments under two separate older Local Environmental Plans (LEPs) inherited from the former Gosford and Wyong Councils.
Last year a unified Central Coast LEP was passed and put in place.
CCN has published a full video interview with the Council Administrator, which can be found on our news website and on our YouTube Channel @CentralCoastNewsAU .
David Abrahams