We have a new twist to the Development Assessment Panel (DAP) Secretariat’s handling of Responsible Authority Reports. They can change them without notice to the Responsible Authority nor the public.
The City of Subiaco provided an RAR to the DAP Secretariat for the DAP Applications at 208-212 Bagot Road, Subiaco and 263-277 Hay/17-19 Olive Street, Subiaco. The DAP Agenda dated 14 December 2012 did not publish the RAR in its entirety as required in Regulation 39(1).
DAP Regulation 12(2) states that a Responsible Authority must provide a report in a form approved by the CEO. That regulation has no provisions to change the content of the Report. On what grounds do you say that the DAP Secretariat had to tamper with the RAR provided and not publish the RAR as provided by the City of Subiaco in its entirety? That’s a question for Minister John Day.
Who is a Responsible Authority? The DAP regulations are not clear on the matter. Therefore we must refer to the Planning and Development Act and the Local Government Act as a reference source.
The DAP training notes clause 4.5.3(b) claim that “if the local government wishes to make a statement regarding an application for a DAP, it should do so by making a submission“. This is a divisive claim, not part of any legislation, that tries to usurp power from the elected Mayor and Councillors to make conflicting statements against its own planning staff who work cooperatively together on the majority of DAs before it.
So my conclusion is that the Responsible Authority is the elected members, not a qualified planning officer. The RAR should contain the planning officer’s report and contain the recommendations by the elected members as resolved in meeting with delegated powers.
Every Western Australian council should review any DAP application and make their own recommendations in the responsible authority report. Otherwise how can elected members respond to the residents and ratepayers who elected them regarding development approvals within their jurisdiction?