Perth Voice Interactive

BAYSWATER and Vincent councils are leading a rebellion against premier Colin Barnett’s development assessment panels, saying they strip too much power from democratically-elected councils.

Last week Bayswater councillor Dan Bull refused in writing to serve on one of the five-member panels, which have the authority to approve major projects: with three panellists appointed by the government and just two drawn from the locally elected council, he describes the bodies as inherently “anti-democratic”.

Decisions by DAPs have been criticised statewide as they’ve resulted in the approval of projects sometimes far bigger, taller and bulkier than planning rules normally allow, and sometimes over the express opposition of community members and the locally elected council.

This week, Vincent mayor John Carey and Cr Emma Cole will ask their council to pass a resolution stating Vincent, “advocates for the abolition of DAPs” on the basis they “are not democratic bodies representing ratepayers and accordingly do not reflect the aspirations or values of the community”.

The pair say “DAPs represent a significant erosion of planning powers by elected representatives who have been given a mandate by ratepayers to make these decisions”.

Former councillor and mayoral aspirant Dudley Maier believes DAPs are getting a bad rap. He says the real problem lies with Vincent’s policies and the staff who administer them.

Tighten

He’s trawled over 20 significant developments that went in front of DAPs over the past year and says 19 were exactly what Vincent staff had recommended. He says DAPs are bound by planning law and the council needs to to tighten up its own planning scheme.

We put that view to Mr Carey: “I fully acknowledge and understand that we’ve got to have better planning policies in place, and we’re going through significant reform to look at every planning policy.

“I’m very clear that many of our policies are not meeting the needs of the community.”

But he said even if every single policy was water-tight, there’d always be discretion and as a matter of principle that should be left to elected councillors and not appointed DAP members.

“The question is this: Who should be responsible, given there is always discretion by decision-makers?

Is it a majority of unelected officials who are not invested at all in our community, or is it elected councillors given a mandate by our ratepayers, with a long-term investment in our community?”

The motion goes to a vote on Tuesday.

by DAVID BELL

BREAKING: Stirling council may join Vincent and Bayswater in formally rejecting development assessment panels. Councillor Elizabeth Re will ask her colleagues to write to the WA government asking it to dump the panels because they’re undemocratic and too much about politics. Her request will be discussed at the next meeting on Tuesday, March 15.