NSW Councils snub new planning panels

ALMOST half the councils in NSW have refused to nominate members to new Government planning panels that will be set up on 1 July, the Sydney Morning Herald reports. The councils have in effect boycotted the five-member joint regional planning panels, a centrepiece of the State Government's new planning laws, by refusing to appoint two local representatives.

The regional panels will assess all developments of $10 million to $100 million, from supermarkets and unit blocks to factories and sporting complexes. There will be six regional panels across NSW, and council appointees will be called in to assess development applications from their areas.

But 49 of 109 eligible councils have either refused to make a nomination to a panel or have delayed doing so because of a lack of clear guidelines about how they will operate and a belief that they are undemocratic. A spokesman from the office of the NSW Minister for Planning, Kristina Keneally, said that if councils did not nominate two representatives they risked being left out of decision-making.