Item 9.2 of the current agenda features an officer response to a Request for a Report on ‘advocacy’ actions available to Council in relation to VCAT. Given that meeting after meeting VCAT is portrayed as the total villain in that it repeatedly ignores council policy, is undemocratic, and that its decisions are arbitrary, depending on the whim of appointed individuals, it is astounding that the recommendations include:
(that Council) considers its VCAT advocacy position in June 2018. This will allow time to monitor the effect of Council’s Planning Scheme Review program on Glen Eira’s number of appeals or success rate at VCAT.
Once again it seems as if council is urged to do absolutely nothing but wait and wait and wait. We point out the bleeding obvious –
- ‘advocacy’ and the work plan resulting from the Planning Scheme Review are not mutually exclusive. Surely strategic work on the planning scheme review work plan can continue alongside some decent advocacy? Besides, council has stated that it will take 4 years to produce two structure plans. What ‘damage’ can VCAT do in the intervening period, unless there is some strong advocacy to change legislation? What advantage do residents gain by waiting, and what happens if the resulting data shows that the ‘number of appeals or success rate at VCAT’ have not been reduced in this period? We remind readers that both council and Matthew Guy promised that VCAT appeals would decrease as a result of the new zones. That furphy has well and truly been put to bed in recent years!
- Part of the Camera report includes some advocacy ‘options’ which somehow do not feature in the ultimate recommendations. He summarises possible council involvement as:
- Through peak bodies for local government in Victoria such as the Municipal Association of Victoria
- In partnership with neighbouring Councils, such as through the Inner South Metro Mayors’ Forum
- Directly to the Attorney- General who is responsible for VCAT.
- Directly to the Minister for Planning
All of the above is possible right now. We can see no salient reason for delay and doing nothing! Councillors need to ensure that proactivity and not reactivity is the agenda of this new council!
Glen Eira Debates 
November 25, 2016 at 10:37 PM
The reasoning why we have to wait until June 2018 before something so simple as a letter to various people can be sent, escapes me entirely. I guess that old habits of let’s do nothing are hard to break. That should be the job of the ceo. Looks like she missed this one.
November 26, 2016 at 2:38 PM
The original request from Council appears sloppy. The problem with VCAT isn’t so much breaches of law, because the law allows VCAT pretty much to make whatever decisions they feel like, but the failure to demonstrate that they have taken into account, have had regard to, or have considered all matters that the law requires it to do.
A consequence is that we have decisions that violate local policies, that are unsustainable, that are uneconomic, that are unfair. VCAT, who isn’t democratically elected, and isn’t representative, and isn’t accountable, replaces Council decisions with its own preferred outcomes without demonstrating that those outcomes are the best for the local community having regard to the long term and cumulative effects of their decisions.
Council has documented in its VCAT Watch item many VCAT decisions that set aside Council’s decision. It is inappropriate to wait another 2 years when Council is currently on track to achieve no substantive changes to the Planning Scheme in that time. Every failure at VCAT is a challenge to Council to improve its scheme. The “Review” doesn’t even bother to show how its recommendations address problems at VCAT. Council has done a lousy job at documenting the key policies and decision criteria that it believes VCAT has failed to apply when Council’s decisions are set aside.
Council should lobby to improve VCAT, shouldn’t wait 2 years, but needs to make dramatic improvement to how it documents VCAT’s many failures.
November 28, 2016 at 10:20 PM
In order to “document VCAT’s many failures” you would have to analyse them first and then compare them to what the current planning scheme has or lacks. I don’t think council has ever done this, or at least they have not made such information available. The planning scheme review went out of its way to avoid doing this by simply providing a list of how many vcat decisions involved minimal change or housing diversity. That tells no one anything.
Making the problem even worse is the fact that managers are refusing countless applications for two double storeys in minimal change. Fair enough that some of these might be “over development”. I can’t believe that all of them are – not at the rate that this is happening. We then face going to vcat, paying for consultants that haven’t a hope of winning, and costing us more an more. The simple solution would be to make sure that the planning scheme is as fool proof as it possibly can be. A good start would be to provide some decent preferred character statements for the minimal change areas. Step one in everything is to analyse and document and then report on what the analysis reveals about the vcat decisions and where council is falling down. Until this is done council and therefore residents don’t have a hope in hell of curbing vcat or stopping council’s extravagant waste of public money.
November 27, 2016 at 11:24 AM
June 2018 is only the starting date for when they first get some figures in on success at vcat. It will be a miracle if they’ve even got one structure plan up and running by that time. I keep scratching my head and trying to figure out why everything is put off in Glen Eira when it wouldn’t cost any money and can be done as easily as joing a few groups and writing letters or setting up meetings with those in power. The only thing I can think of is that it might cost developers some profits so better keep mum and delay as long as possible.
November 28, 2016 at 9:29 AM
Disgraceful, a continuation of the same rubbish.
November 28, 2016 at 10:15 AM
Ya cant make vcat good cos then ya aint got a patsy to blame for ya own stuff ups.
November 28, 2016 at 7:50 PM
I think the last sentence is the most important. Councillors have to give this the big thumbs down and move a motion that means something. If they don’t then nothing has changed about the way Glen Eira works. I hope they do what’s right and not is in the recommendation.