Tamworth, Gunnedah councils coming to grips with reforms

PLANNING reform and understanding the recently-released planning green paper were hot topics at a meeting in Tamworth yesterday.

NSW Planning and Infrastructure community and stakeholder engagement director Liam McKay has been in the region since Monday meeting with councils to talk them through the ins and outs of the green paper for a new planning system.

The green paper, compiled by Planning System Review panel co-chairmen Tim Moore and Ron Dyer, was released in July and 

overwhelmingly suggested major changes were needed to the current system. 

Mr McKay’s visit follows calls from a number of northern region councils including Tamworth, Gunnedah and others that form the Namoi Councils alliance, that they needed more detail on elements of the 96-page report.

Following the release of the report a number of northern councils commented that the green paper had suggested a number of schemes they were unsure about. 

Among those concerns were the introduction of independent planning panels and the suggestion of removing elected councillors from the development decision-making process. 

During yesterday’s meeting stakeholders from councils were able to ask a number of questions to clarify elements of the green paper and Mr McKay was able to provide backgrounding and provide some answers to the councils’ concerns. 

He was also able to address concerns about other planning issues of interest including the strategic regional land use plans.