Portal issues continue as non-compliant DA is approved
As we see Ettalong change drastically with the 52-unit building take place, a few doors further down along Ocean View Rd another five-storey DA has now been approved after a hearing in the Land and Environment Court.
Central Coast Council received submissions on DA5779 from 61 members of the public, which have been overruled as another non-compliant building gets pushed into the village of Ettalong.
To make matters worse, Central Coast Council planning department then sent a letter to all the people who made a submission with a webvlink that does not work for most people.
Initial responses from the council planning department were not helpful - providing further non-functional links.
After further investigation and escalations, a new working link was made available to the public and the letters re-issued.
This is again another example of the continued issues and problems with new council planning portal introduced last December.
Council is gradually working on these issues.
However, they have been caught up in a backlog with staffing issues and other workload.
Key outstanding issues are the slow speed to download documents, the inaccessibility of exhibition dates and the difficulty in making a submission from a search.
All these used to be available before the December system "upgrade".
We can only hope that Dr Howe's council department is able to prioritise these issues to bring back missing features and help regain public confidence.
The Peninsula Residents Association works to increase liveability with future development on the Peninsula and to improve planning processes.
New members may join at https://www.peninsularesidents.org.au/
SOURCE:
Email, 16 Sep 2022
Julian Bowker, Umina