Tara Murray
Transparency is needed now and into the future around planning decisions according to the the peak body representing the local government sector.
Municipal Association of Victoria president councillor David Clark said councils across the state have noted an alarming lack of open consultation with councillors and their communities in recent times.
Brimbank councillors and residents have raised concerns at a recent council meeting about the lack of consultation on key projects including the Big Housing Build and the development of the old Albion Explosives factory in Cairnlea.
Cr Clark said community consultation has long been a key plank of Victoria’s planning system.
“Through their elected councillors, communities have a say, and always have had a say, in the development of the places they live,” he said.
“As with any system, of course, there is room for improvement and much-needed reform of the planning system is now afoot.”
Cr Clark said while change is coming it can’t come at any cost. He said there was a genuine concern the voice of the community might be lost.
“This lack of consultation may even foreshadow the reforms themselves, cutting out critical checks and balances within the planning system that allow communities to share a view in the process.”
Cr Clark said many of the decisions to take planning controls away from councils have fallen under the guise of “pandemic recovery”.
He said the planning system should not be overhauled for short-term economic benefit.
“While MAV acknowledges the government’s needs to think laterally as we all recover from the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, we should all be increasingly alarmed by the type of projects the state is choosing to drive through the planning system themselves.”
Cr Clark sighted the release of the state government’s planning and building approvals process review, which he said the MAV was pleased to see consider the actual challenges and experience of councils in navigating the current planning framework and didn’t recommend a water-down of council and community input into planning.
