The Bairnsdale Chamber of Commerce (BCCI) has raised concerns over the lengthy delays in planning permit applications being processed by the East Gippsland Shire.
The chamber is concerned the hold ups could impact economic development in East Gippsland.
President of the chamber, Jaime Savory, told the Advertiser she had been approached by local businesses in Bairnsdale regarding delays with planning permit applications.
“This generally isn’t an area the BCCI would get involved in, however, when local businesses are raising concerns that this impacting their businesses and the overall economy of Bairnsdale, it does become an issue and we need to address this,” Ms Savory said.
“It has been brought to our attention that this particular department (planning) is having resourcing issues, meaning there are not enough staff to keep up with the number of applications.”
Ms Savory said she understood bushfire-affected residents were being made a priority but it was unacceptable “the turnaround times victims are experiencing based on the lack of resources”.
Concerned, Ms Savory said she contacted the shire in an attempt to understand the lag in order to inform anxious business owners.
“I was told by the shire that they are doing everything they can to fully resource this particular department as the levels of permit applications are not slowing down at all.”
The Advertiser has been told the shire has recently lost two of its senior planning officers.
“I don’t believe it is because the remaining planning officers in the department are just sitting there doing nothing, I genuinely believe that the level of work needed to be completed is unachievable for the staffing levels they have there,” Ms Savory said.
The chamber also fears that delays in planning applications being processed will have a domino affect on East Gippsland progressing economically.
Ms Savory cited the potential construction slated to take place in East Gippsland with the home-builder grant and other building incentives that are available to people to build in regional Victoria.
“We are seeing record land sales, record first home buyers purchasing and I hope off the back of this we can keep up with demand in the planning space to ensure the money gets back into our small business community with the development of these homes,” Ms Savory said.
“We attract these people to come and invest in the region, to build homes and to stimulate the economy in a time of drought, bushfires and now COVID, we need a department that is sufficiently resourced to deal with this volume of applications.”
Prominent businessman, John Dahlsen has also expressed his concern.
He recently had dealings with the shire over Dahlsen’s Industrial Estate subdivision on Forge Creek Road.
“A planning department in a shire is a critical, very important mix of a shire’s activities,” Mr Dahlsen said.
“The quality and capacity of a planning department can have a huge economic affect in the local area and consequently it’s very important that its policies are clear, easy to follow and they are well staffed with well qualified people.”
Mr Dahlsen said he understood the planning department has “lost or removed two key people for reasons that have not been disclosed, so it has been left grossly undermanned”.
He said any backlog of planning applications would be “very detrimental to East Gippsland”.
“When you look at the huge amounts the state and federal governments are giving to residential shires, particularly like East Gippsland, to help them overcome drought and bushfires, and now the COVID crisis, that activity is severely discounted if you haven’t got a very good planning department that can keep up with all the work that’s required to keep development going on in the community,” he said.
Mr Dahlsen said he was aware of people “who simply won’t deal with this shire because planning is so difficult”.
“A lot of money is spent trying to promote the area, but you undo that in one foul swoop if you’ve got an inefficient and slow planning department,” he said.
“We’ve got 65 sites across Australia and we deal with a lot of councils and this has to be one of the worst we deal with. We had dealings with the Wellington Shire and we’ve found them very good, they tell you up front what the issues might be.”
Mr Dahlsen said people were “frightened to talk because they’re worried their own planning application is going to be jeopardised”.
“But I think the problem is so profound that somebody has to stick their neck out and put it out there for discussion in the community. We really need to know what the shire is doing about this,” he said.
Mr Dahlsen claimed there been a logjam in the planning department “for as long as I can remember”.
“Planning can be incredibly rule-based and very good planners recognize where exceptions should be made or space should be given, but they’re so rules-based and inflexible, they’ve lost sight of the principles,” he said.
“If you had website where people could make complaints, you’d be flooded,” Mr Dahlsen said.
In a statement, East Gippsland Shire CEO, Anthony Basford, said: “I am aware of concerns about staffing levels, and we are working to resolve this.”
“In 2019 a structural review of the area created more capacity in the team and bought in community planning to ensure a holistic approach to planning,” he said.
“We are identifying skill gaps and recruiting accordingly. We are also reviewing our systems, processes and culture.”
Mr Basford said these measures would make “a significant difference to outputs and customer service”.
He said the shire was recently able to increase resources to help with the additional workload and rejected claims the shire had refused the offer of help from planners from other councils.
