Perth Voice Interactive

IF Vincent council was a private company, Mt Hawthorn resident Steve Allison says he’d take his business elsewhere.

The council’s taken an extraordinary 115 days to process his application to knock down a garage and build a double garage with a bedroom on top.

His first version of the plans was submitted in November. Council planning staff came back to him in February to suggest changes.

He resubmitted in March and it has taken nearly four months to get an answer. His plans were signed off the day after he’d rung, and shortly after the Voice submitted queries about the delay.

At a recent budget meeting former councillor Dudley Maier warned his former colleagues that “development applications are taking far too long to process”.

“This is an area where the city provides a service at a fee,” he said.

“A private business would put on more staff to address the backlog, or face customers going elsewhere. The city should not rely on its monopoly position and should look at employing more staff or outsourcing some processing.”

Revenue from application fees this year is up 42 per cent but salaries are up just 11 per cent, suggesting no new staff have been put on to help clear the extra work.

Mr Allison works on offshore oil rig approvals. He gets 30 days to approve changes and the stakes are a lot higher, so he can’t understand the lengthy assessment for a new shed.

The Voice asked to see Vincent’s current average times for dealing with planning applications but we didn’t get them. In neighbouring Perth, officers crank out delegated authority decisions—those which tick all the boxes and don’t need to go to the elected chamber—in 15 days for fast-tracked stuff or 20 for those which go across the CEO’s desk.

Acting Vincent CEO Mike Rootsey concedes “the time delay on the part of the city in this matter is excessive”.

He says new planning director Gabriela Poezyn is making it a top priority.

Mayor John Carey is hoping new CEO Len Kosova will also make his mark: When he took over a planning team at Wanneroo, he slashed the average processing time from 50 days to 16.

by DAVID BELL