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

Did the council have appropriate management arrangements for the delivery of its planning services? 79
4.1 Introduction
For any council’s planning function to be effective, an appropriate
management structure must be in place. This should include:
appropriate risk-management processes
a strategic framework to guide the provision of planning services (one that
allows changes to be made to planning schemes where necessary)
arrangements for the delivery of planning services
appropriate delegations of authority for decision-making
appropriate community consultation processes
supporting policies, procedures and guidelines
a reporting regime and performance management system to assess
performance.
The following parts of the report address how well the Glenelg Shire Council
(the council) met these 7 requirements.
In the final section (4.9), we consider if recent initiatives by council have led to
better planning outcomes.
4.2 Appropriate risk-management processes
As with all major council activities, council management should assess the
risks associated with its planning activity and develop strategies to manage
those risks.
In Part 3, we highlighted how the council’s poor planning record in
appraising, notifying, referring, assessing and making decisions has exposed
it to considerable risk.
Sections 4.5 (delegation of authority) and 5.2 (contractual arrangements),
describe in detail how engaging the planning contractor to provide planning
services and make planning decisions on behalf of council, did not relieve the
council from its fundamental responsibility for service delivery.
4.2.1 Conclusion
While an overall risk-management plan has been developed for the council, it
does not cover the council’s planning function. This is a critical deficiency,
given that the council remains accountable for the cost and quality of its
outsourced planning services.