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Legislative Council - Fifty-Second Parliament, First Session (52-1)
2010-05-06 Daily Xml
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MOUNT BARKER DEVELOPMENT PLAN AMENDMENT

The Hon. M. PARNELL (16:26): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the Minister for Urban Development and Planning a question about the Mount Barker development plan amendment.

Leave granted.

The Hon. M. PARNELL: Last year, before he had even released the 30-Year Plan for Greater Adelaide, the minister initiated a ministerial development plan amendment (DPA) for Mount Barker following an approach by a consortium of private developers. At the time, the minister assured this council that the preparation of the DPA would be conducted in partnership with the local Mount Barker council.

In fact, on 15 July the minister said on three separate occasions that, although his department would control the process, it would be conducted 'in conjunction with Mount Barker council', that the department was 'working closely' with the council and that the work would be carried out 'in close collaboration' with the District Council of Mount Barker. Despite these assurances, the lead story in the Mount Barker Courier a fortnight ago was titled 'Planning minister cops blast from angry Ann.' The article states:

The Mount Barker council is angry that it is still being kept in the dark over details of the government's ministerial development plan amendment for the town.

The story further states that the mayor of Mount Barker, Ann Ferguson, had written to minister Holloway raising significant concerns over the process the government is using to complete the DPA. The mayor's letter to the minister states:

Your staff have asserted to my chief executive that extensive consultation has been taking place. However, I can firmly advise you that this is not the case.

Mayor Ferguson went on to call on the government to extend the minimum consultation time when the draft DPA is publicly released to ensure that the council and the community have an adequate chance to respond. My questions to the minister are:

1. What consultation, if any, has actually occurred with the District Council of Mount Barker on the Mount Barker DPA?

2. When will the draft Mount Barker DPA be released for public consultation?

3. Will he extend the public consultation period on the DPA as per the council's request?

The Hon. P. HOLLOWAY (Minister for Mineral Resources Development, Minister for Urban Development and Planning, Minister for Industrial Relations, Minister Assisting the Premier in Public Sector Management) (16:29): I had a meeting with the mayor of Mount Barker, the deputy mayor, the chief executive and also the head of the planning division earlier this week, and I have had a number of meetings with them over the past couple of years.

I am advised by officers in my department that they had been working regularly with the planning staff. I believe that there is an issue, and I discussed with the mayor and the deputy mayor earlier this week what information is provided to the elected members. Certainly, in relation to the planning staff, my understanding is that there has been very close cooperation.

As I pointed out to the mayor and deputy mayor, I have not seen the final version and would not expect to until it comes up to that stage of the process. Obviously, one would expect it to be the same for elected members of council in relation to their final view of a DPA. It would go out for public consultation after all the technical studies are done. That is something that obviously both my department and the planning officers of council would be involved in. What we were able to do at that meeting earlier this week was to clarify the situation, and I expect that an announcement will be made fairly soon (hopefully within the next week or two) as to the timing and the arrangements that will need to go forward.

The Mount Barker plan amendment has been a long time in gestation. It would certainly be to everyone's benefit to get that released as soon as possible so that we can then have the discussions. After all, the work to date has been only to prepare a development plan amendment. It then needs to go out for consultation. You cannot have effective consultation until you have something to discuss, and that is a matter we are developing as quickly as possible.

I trust that, from that meeting we had earlier this week, the Mount Barker council is satisfied with the way in which we intend to proceed. Clearly, the council has concerns in relation to infrastructure issues. Of course, they are not matters that are dealt with directly in development plans, but it is important that there be some parallel process in relation to how infrastructure is considered. As I have said, that was all part of the discussions at the meeting, and I hope that we will be able to make some announcements clarifying all those issues in the very near future.

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