Temora Shire Council is again the best performing local government in New South Wales in terms of assessment times for development applications.

 

The Local Development Performance Monitoring report for 2009-10 published by the NSW Department of Planning shows the average processing time for the 71,550 development applications determined last year was 67 days.

 

This represents a reduction of seven days in average processing time from 2008-09.

 

Furthermore, the number of councils averaging assessment times of more than 100 days has more than halved from 21 in 2008-09 to just 10 in 2009-10.

 

Key findings of the 2009-10 report show that:

  • A total of 100,868 applications were processed including new development applications, modifications and complying developments – an increase of 5 per cent from the previous year.
  • At the same time, average development application determination times fell by seven days to 67 days.
  • The number of fast-tracked complying development approvals increased by 56 per cent to 14,315, with the total value of these approvals rising from $850 million to $2.98 billion.
  • More than 40 per cent of complying development approvals were processed under the NSW Government‟s codes, with councils reporting 501 new single dwellings, 1,819 residential alterations and additions and 906 commercial, retail and office developments approved via this fast-track system.
  • State agencies took an average of 43 days to comment on referred development applications, down from 54 days in 2008-09.

Planning Minister Tony Kelly said the latest figures show significant and continued improvement in the efficiency of the NSW planning system.


Mr Kelly also praised the efforts of the councils which significantly reduced the time taken to process applications compared to the previous 12 month period.

 

“All of the five slowest councils from 2008-09 – Wellington, Manly, Parramatta, Hunters Hill and Palerang – have moved out of the bottom five through improvements in the efficiency of their assessment systems.

 

“I congratulate these and other councils who have improved their assessment processing and encourage them to keep up the good work.”

 

Councils with the greatest reduction in average determination time include Gilgandra Shire Council, Ashfield Municipal Council, Conargo Shire Council, Walcha Council and Wellington Council. The councils in the Sydney region which most significantly reduced their determination times were Ashfield, Parramatta, Manly, Rockdale and Warringah.

 

Temora Shire Council was again the fastest council in terms of DA assessment times, averaging just six days. Others with short approval times include Berrigan (13 days), Conargo (16), Bland (17) and Urana (18).

 

The five councils with the longest average determination times in 2009-10 were Cooma-Monaro (163 days), Botany Bay (128), Gunnedah (117), Leichhardt (113) and Upper Lachlan (110).