Appeals for VCAT clarity

By Kath Gannaway
YARRA Ranges council will issue a “please explain” to the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT) after Cr Ken Smith said inconsistent decisions by VCAT panels are making councillors and council officers look like idiots.
He said VCAT was applying rules on an ad hoc basis, depending on the development itself, rather than the planning rules.
Cr Smith said a planning application for a function centre in Uplands Road, Chirnside Park, which the council refused but VCAT subsequently granted, was another case of VCAT not showing consistency where green-wedge policy was concerned.
“Uplands Road just staggers me,” Cr Smith said.
“A green wedge applicant comes along and says they want to build a function centre.
“The residents come along and ask what are the chances and your response is that you don’t believe it should be successful, given the current State Government guidelines. Then it’s overturned,” he said.
“There are other decisions where they (VCAT) uphold the green wedge and in general terms that’s what they should be doing.”
Cr Smith said it was the inconsistency that was frustrating.
“As a member of the community, not only as a councillor, and a lawyer, what you want is certainty in terms of decision-making. You need not only to advise people, but to act properly in giving that advice.
“If a ratepayer or developer comes and says what do you think, you have to say that application should not be successful and the advice you give has to be on the understanding of State Government policy.
“The current status with VCAT is that you can’t do that and you feel like an idiot when you get these decisions which are incompatible with others made by VCAT.
“It’s hard enough trying to deliver proper planning decisions at council level, let alone trying to interpret VCAT’s decisions which seem to be all over the place,” he added.
Cr Smith said planning staff feel the same frustration.
“It’s just bloody unfair that staff work hard to bring out reports, put in hours and hours of research time and money, just to find out it’s all to no avail.
“It’s just the pits,” he said.
The mayor, Tim Heenan, and O’Shannassy Ward’s Cr Monika Keane supported Cr Smith’s view.
“I have always had problems with situations where you have a strong community voice saying one thing, council agrees and backs the community up and then it goes to VCAT who seem to have very little regard for what the locals and local council feels is important,” Cr Keane said.
The said local policies hold very little weight at VCAT which she said are instructed to look at state planning first and foremost.
“Our local policies are last on the list of things they need to consider.”
The council will write to VCAT to ask that the president talk to the council to get a better understanding of what Cr Smith said are, in essence, a legal framework of policies.
“It would be of huge benefit across the board to have consistent application of those policies,” Cr Smith said