Wingecarribee Shire Council says a new streamlined approach coupled with implementation improvements has significantly reduced DA processes and turnaround times.
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On Tuesday, August 1 Communities and Place director Adan Davis said the council had vastly improved clearance rates: "by prioritising dealing with the legacy of a backlog of DAs."
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Council has introduced a Fast-Track Team dedicated to expediting straight-forward applications.
"Within the six months to June 30, 2023, Wingecarribee Shire Council has significantly reduced our average processing time on DAs from 171 days to 125 days," Mr Davis said.
He says that figure will continue to be driven down by council's new practice of limiting amendments to one opportunity, and the monitoring of external consultants by a knowledgeable assessment staff.
"Resourcing our new Fast-Track Team, focused on new applications that are straight-forward, will put us on track to hit our goal of a 60-day turn-around, set down by resolution of council in February," Mr Davis said.
"Our campaign to clear a legacy of long-standing DAs clogging our system has succeeded in reducing the number of DAs held for longer than 300 days, by 25 per cent.
"In just six months, we've cut back the total number of applications still under assessment by 40. Those under 100 days have been reduced by 56," he said.
Council's average processing time of 125 days still exceeds its 100-day assessment goal by 25 days. It is only 13 more than the 112-day state average.
"We remain committed to achieving our goal by the end of this year," Mr Davis said.
"Making that happen for our community will set a new benchmark."
Actively recruiting additional qualified team members is critical to meet the 60-day goal the council has set for itself for "fast-tracked assessment of substantially compliant applications with minimal complexity".
"The efficiency of this approach has been proven at other councils and we are expecting to see great outcomes," Mr Davis said.
A further update on progress with processing of DA applications, up to the end of 2023, is expected to be presented to council during the first meeting of 2024.
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