2015-06-23 Planning & Organisation Committee Meeting Agenda

PLANNING & ORGANISATION COMMITTEE MEETING AGENDA                                               23 JUNE 2015


                     July to Sept          Oct to Dec 2014       Jan to Mar 2015        April to May
                     2014                                                               2015
COM*                 13                    4                     18                     6
RM*                  29                    27                    38                     15
Audits               25 (estimate)         25 (estimate)         25 (estimate)          25 (estimate)
* COM is the Tech 1 reference used for compliance/breach matters
* RM is the Tech 1 reference used for management of customer requests. RMs recorded here are only those
enquiries received which relate to compliance breaches.

3.    PEOPLE
The Development Assessment Area currently has 15.5 equivalent persons in the team to
deliver the range of activities, including 3 planners, 2 engineering officers and 1
infrastructure plan and charges officer.
The activities undertaken by Development Assessment are currently delivered
predominantly internally with specialist consultants engaged dependant on the application
assessment requirements including hydrology, economic, environmental (odour) and noise.
Staff are currently fully engaged in the team’s activities with some lag time experienced
during times of leave and difficulties in completing new initiatives. Towards the end of this
calender year one planner will be commencing long service leave for 3 months and during
this time it is proposed to engage a planning consultant on as needs basis to maintain
reasonable service levels.

4.    SYSTEMS & PROCESSES
A Service Review of the DA Planning team was undertaken in 2014-15 and completed in
February this year. This Service Review developed an Action Plan which identified up to 30
recommendations, including the development of customer friendly information on regular
development enquiries, development of key performance indicators and regular reporting,
use of planning staff as expert witnesses on minor appeal matters, improved practices for
involving infrastructure officers in assessment and on and off maintenance inspections,
improved procedures for acting on non-compliances with construction activities and
investigation into the use of infringement notices for development offences.
As part of this review feedback was sought from the DA Consultants Group on the team’s
performance and from staff. Feedback from the DA Consultants group indicated generally a
high level of satisfaction; time frames for assessment were good and the Council was seen
as very approachable and communicating well with applicants. However, both the DA
consultants and officers considered the current corporate technology systems required
improvement and were impacting on customer service generally and efficiencies. Some
general internal improvements were also identified such as refining Operational Works
conditions, clearer process for provision of draft conditions (considered highly desirable by
the DA Consultants Group) and updating of standard drawings for civil works.
Work on the Service Review Action Plan has commenced with review of the Operational
Works conditions expected to be completed in July, involvement of infrastructure officers in
assessment and pre on maintenance inspections underway and attendance as an expert
witness by officers at the Building & Development Committee appeal hearings already
occurring.
Previous Council Consideration
Nil
Finance & Risk
Refer to Section 1 - Finance



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