Community planning services in Glenelg Shire Council : 1998-2005 ...

2.2.1 Council’s planning services: 1998-2005
Victoria’s planning system 17
Until early 1998, in-house staff provided the council’s planning services.
From mid-1998 to 2004, the council engaged an external town planner7 to:
provide planning services under contract (planning contractor)
make all decisions on planning permits, under delegation from the
council as an employee of the council for 5 hours per week.
The planning contractor was engaged under a 5-year contract and later reappointed
for a further 5 years (commencing January 2003). This
reappointment followed a formal tender process.
Over the past year, significant concerns about the council’s planning
services have been expressed to my Office by a number of people,
organisations and government agencies.
Following an internal review of its planning function, the council, in July
2004, developed new planning processes and amended its planning
delegations. When the planning contractor was informed of these new
processes, he submitted a claim for an increase in fees of around 50 per
cent. In response to this claim, the council engaged solicitors to review its
planning services. The aim of the review was to determine whether the
planning contractor was providing the services stipulated in his contract,
and if the claim for increased fees, was warranted.
The solicitors’ review found that the planning contractor had not complied
with key legislative requirements in undertaking statutory planning
activities. In December 2004, the council terminated the contract with the
planning contractor, effective March 2005.
In early 2005, the council decided to provide most of its planning services
internally, supplementing these resources with external contractors in peak
periods. To this end, the council employed a town planner to manage its
planning services and tendered for planning contractors to assist him.
In March 2005, the planning contractor was again engaged by the council
(although under a different company name), under the direction of
council’s Development Services Manager 8 . The planning contractor
processed around 10 planning applications in April 2005 and has
undertaken no further work for the council.
7 The council engaged a company specialising in planning services. The planning contractor was an
employee of this company.
8 At August 2005, the contract between council and the company providing the planning services
had not been signed.