Audit of pre-DA meetings required

The resubmitted Woy Woy Sporties redevelopment plans show that pre-DA meetings between developers and council officers are non-productive and can compromise the integrity of our planning system.

Mr Ross Cochrane has recently commented in Peninsula News on the pre-DA meeting in this case.

You might well ask: What did this meeting achieve?

According to Mr Cochrane and local residents, this new proposal makes barely any difference to the previous proposal.

It is as though council staff encourage the over-development of the floodplain, non-compliance with DCP 159 character statements and "stretching" of planning regulations in residential areas.

However, we may never know as the minutes of the pre-DA meeting were not released to the public

There are many unanswered questions regarding this development.

The number is likely to increase if the minutes were freely available.

If such meetings do not result in applications which comply with the planning regulations, are they not wasting the time of council staff, whose productivity is already under question.

When was the last evaluation and audit of pre-DA meetings completed by either Gosford Council, Wyong Council, administrator Ian Reynolds or Central Coast Council?

I hope one is conducted soon and that this results in the Council increasing its efficiency and productivity, and in greater compliance with planning regulations and adopted "strategies".

Letter, 2 Nov 2017

Norman Harris, Umina