Council is committed to continuously improving services, and one of the key projects we have underway is focussed on improving our development assessment process. 

We have a growing region and understand that the way we work needs to keep pace with this growth. 

This is why we’re investing $8M into a program to improve development assessment.

We’re working to ensure our people and processes are as effective as they can be, and that development assessment timeframes get better and better.

We’re recruiting more people and investing in mentoring and training junior staff to build their skills, create career pathways and increase our planning and assessment capacity for the long term. 

And we’re improving our customer responsiveness, with more than 80 per cent of enquiries now being answered within target timeframes. 

I’d like to wholeheartedly thank the 120 people from the development industry who attended our recent ‘Building a Strong Foundation for the Future’ forum. We received helpful feedback and will be reviewing the ideas and suggestions that were proposed. 

Two strong themes that emerged from the forum were communication and collaboration. I’m confident that with Council, industry professionals and our community working together on important issues like this, we can achieve a better understanding of the problems and create stronger solutions. 

Mayor Lawrie McKinna