The West Australian Local Government Minister Tony Simpson is looking at a new system that would see planning applications for local councils moved online.

Internet access to some permits and other council functions could make life simpler for developers and homeowners, Mr Simpson says.

But some WA mayors have concerns that it may be the start of Government plans to erode the power of local governments to reject developments which are against local interests.

Mr Simpson says the process should be more uniform, as each council currently has different planning processes.

He says it is particularly difficult for developers and who work throughout different council areas.

The Local Government Minister used laws covering crossovers – the space between footpath and road – as an example of the needless duplication.

WA has 121 different regulations in place at 138 local councils specifically dealing with crossovers.

The Minister said some of these unnecessary lines would be erased by moves to amalgamate metro councils, roughly halving the number of electorates for Perth.

A spokesperson from Councils for Democracy – a local government alliance formed against the moves to amalgamate – says bringing planning across the regions into a single area is another attempt to strip power away from communities and local councils.

“The Government doesn't seem to understand that the communities wish to decide the manner in which their landscape will evolve, and they wish to have an opinion on that process as it evolves,” he told the ABC.

“This idea that seems to exist from the Government that somehow or other any amount of development is good development is not in line with my understanding of what we would call communities and local government.

“I understand Minister Simpson last week in Bunbury made the precise comment that the future for local governments will be essentially rubber-stamping planning applications.

“If that's true, that's the first concrete evidence we've had in this reform agenda about the motives which underwrite the Government's intentions.

“What we've never had is any evidence of benefit that any community will derive from reform.”

The Local Government Advisory Board will report on the proposed council boundary shifts next month.