The NSW Government has been caught out trying to keep controversial rezoning proposals secret from democratically elected councillors and the communities they represent, it was revealed today.
Local Government NSW (LGNSW) President Darriea Turley AM said she was appalled to learn the Government was demanding council town planners sign confidentiality agreements before learning which areas were proposed for rezoning.
"To get the basic information our town planners must sign an agreement that they will not reveal any information to the democratically elected council they work for, or any member of the community who may be impacted.
"It's a clear-cut attempt to subvert local democracy, and the sole reason is that the Government knows communities will be outraged when they find out what they're in for.
"In cases we're aware of, the rezoning is designed to allow massive development so problematic it has already been rejected on multiple occasions by the local council and independent planning panel."
Cr Turley said the confidentiality deeds required appeared to be the Government's latest scheme to allow developers to resubmit already rejected plans without public scrutiny.
"If these big development proposals are beneficial, why shroud them in secrecy?" she said.
"Why adopt a sneaky new system in which the community and their elected local representatives get no say until it is too late in the process to do anything about it?
"We believe that all planning proposals - their location, land use, density and scale, along with the supporting infrastructure they need, should be on the public record.
"To allow these proposals passage behind the closed doors of the Planning Department is the very opposite of transparency and good governance.
"How can the Planning Department of the State Government make sound recommendations about which of these big development proposals should proceed when they haven't talked to the democratically elected leaders of those communities and have no understanding of the local issues?"
"Sidelining councils and the community from this critical role will only benefit the commercial interests of developers and further degrades the community from having any say about what developments occur in their areas."
