Council vote review push

THE Clarence council will ask the Local Government Association to lobby the state government to review how development applications from councillors are managed during meetings, after a DA from a Clarence Alderman became a point of contention last month.

A DA submitted by Alderman Dean Ewington to convert his single-storey Howrah residence into two separate two-storey dwellings was approved in August, despite comments from some colleagues they felt “conflicted” or “uncomfortable”.

In a meeting on Monday night, a motion was carried 6-5 that LGAT lobby the government to consider amending the Land Use Planning and Approvals Act “to provide an alternative mechanism for consideration of development applications submitted by elected members, as a means to removing perception of bias or conflict of interest”.

The motion was moved by Alderman Luke Edmunds who said it wasn’t only fellow members who were made uncomfortable by the DA.

“I’m informed the council was contacted by a number of people after the meeting expressing their concerns and we ought to be acting on that,” Mr Edmunds said.

He said the possibility of alternative arrangements in dealing with DAs from aldermen was worth being investigated.

“Councillors are used to making tough decisions, but when we have a perception of bias or a conflict of interest it is worth seeing if things can be done better,” Mr Edmunds said.

“A review might well consider that there is no perfect outcome and that the status quo is best.

“But after what happened a few weeks ago it was incumbent on us to at least see if there’s a better way forward.”

During the meeting, Mr Ewington said the issue was “uncontroversial”.

“This sort of stuff has happened hundreds of times over the last hundred or whatever years of local government and now all of a sudden, everyone’s conflicted about passing judgment on a DA,” he said.

“The bottom line is, if you have a conflict and you feel you can’t pass judgment, you have the option to leave the room.”

Mr Edmunds said if LGAT chose to lobby the government, the outcome could affect other councils.