That was the sentiment this morning of our Mayor, Lachlan Clyne when he was quoted as saying “We are very unhappy with that”, referring to the Government’s non consulted decision to take planning approval away from Councils for all projects 5 storeys and above created by the recent array of DPA’s addressing their 30 year plan.

Mayor Clyne went onto say “Councils are the best placed to assess development and the State Government is taking control and the decision-making away from us,”.

On the back of the announcement by Premier Weatherill and Deputy Premier Rau that the various DPA’s for the inner rim council areas were now law one of the biggest concerns expressed by residents has, in keeping with the history of this Government, has been ignored.

Residents who potentially live next to these development opportunities, when they hear of this, I am sure will be outraged.

Of course, this announcement once again seems to prejudge the work of the Planning Review currently being conducted by the Government. I have already commented On this blog site back on September 30) on Deputy Premier Rau’s recent public comments which seemed to prejudge the outcome of the review. As I said in that blog post “Anyone in the inner rim of councils thinking that the 30 year plan was the fight they had to have think again. This has ALL the hallmarks of closing up shop and providing developers a free reign”. 

I wonder what the attitude of the alternative government is to this, with an election due in March.