WAGGA City Council's planning department has come under fire from one resident who says repeated bad experiences have "discouraged" him from future dealings.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Telling of numerous instances where he believes he has been misled by the department, Phil Mullins said his general experience of dealing with council had been "really frustrating".
Mr Mullins was one of the people responsible for helping to organise the Wagga Fishing Classic earlier this year.
The event has been running for four years, but this year for the first time organisers were told they would be required to lodged a development application.
Mr Mullins claimed he was initially quoted a fee of $100 by council's planning department, only to be told it would cost $650 just two weeks later and a host of additional information would be required.
"They wanted to know where every building was on the site, to scale, every tree, and on adjacent land as well," he said.
"It was ridiculous what they were asking."
Responding to recent criticism of council's planning department, development services manager Colby Farmer said the prevailing view of council from the industry and key stakeholders was positive.
"Council does not believe this (negative view) is the representative and/or view of the development industry as a whole," he said.
"I can appreciate that due to recent staffing changes within the strategic planning section, that industry may be frustrated with the pace and responsiveness of council in relation to some strategic planning matters, but these staffing resource issues are being proactively managed."
Mr Farmer said more than 100 key system improvements had been rolled out within the planning department over the past five years.
However, councillor Garry Hiscock admitted it was a concern that planning issues among council were frustrating and confusing residents and developers.
"I'm not sure it discourages them totally - Wagga's a pretty go-forward city and I think people do want to develop and do business here," he said.
"But they are frustrated to a certain extent by the way planning matters are dealt with."