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For several years, some councillors and publications have vilified other councillors and council staff for not creating a new Local Environment Plan fast enough. As a layman, I presumed there was something to these accusations of sloth and self-interest. However now that I am on Council I can see the reality of the situation is very different.
The 2008 Annual Report from the NSW Department of Planning stated that of the 113 local government councils in NSW, only 2.5% of councils had exhibited their new State mandated LEPs. Palerang was ahead of the curve being in the group of 67 councils that had commenced work on new documentation, and was way ahead of the thirty-one percent of councils which had not even started. The report went on to say that it expected councils to finalise their new LEPs by 2011.
Not only was Palerang out in front, but that's even after it had to wait for the State’s Sydney-Canberra Corridor Strategy and other new regional plans before it could get stuck into drafting new documents. Those State inputs weren’t finalised until last year. Had we submitted a rushed LEP that didn’t reflect those State requirements, we would have been sent back to the drawing board to put them in. Critics of the progress have also not disclosed that a large percentage of the LEP will come straight from text provided by the State.
I am dumfounded when I hear someone say that we should just release the staff draft without any analysis or review by councillors beforehand. It seems mindless to even contemplate eliminating the involvement of the residents’ elected representatives’ from the most important document that binds the shire together? I think that those people who want to sanitise LEP drafting from all councillor participation, are ignoring the fact that Palerang residents elected nine differently minded councillors, warts and all. They did so because the different perspectives of the councillors coincide with their own different personal perspectives.
The whole electorate is neither for unchecked development nor is it for unchecked green politics. The residents have a patchwork of views and goals which they want vigorously represented in all council policy formation work, including the local planning insturments.
For as much as I admire and respect the work of council staff, it would be irresponsible for the elected representatives to shirk one of the main tasks they were elected to perform. The Planning staff receive direction after direction from State departments as to what should be included in our LEP. It’s reasonable to assume that under such pressures, staff would initially create a draft reflecting the State’s view of a local government area, rather than the local residents’ view of how their shire should be.
So long as citizens have three spheres of government,
their elected officials should make sure that each one is represented distinctly and to the best of their abilities
and circumstances. They didn’t vote for rubber-stamps.
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