State Planning suffering a hiatus – Dr Joe McGirr

Leading Independent candidate in this year’s NSW state election contesting the seat of Wagga Wagga Dr Joe McGirr said it was evident the Kenneally Government has been asleep at the wheel in assisting Councils across NSW to help ensure speedy resolutions to development applications.
“It infuriates me that one of the major problems that Councils have is that they cannot attract qualified people to fill town planning positions,” Dr McGirr said.
“Councils are struggling to keep up with the frantic pace of development requests from their communities and a large part of the problem is a lack of qualified staff to undertake town planning duties.”
Dr McGirr says a large number of Councils across NSW do not have the people resources to accommodate the current workload.
The lack of qualified people to fill these positions should have been recognized by this Government years ago.
“I want Kristine Kenneally to explain to me and the people of this state why the Government has sat on its hands and not developed an education program to fill the void.”
McGirr cited an example within his hometown of Wagga Wagga where Council had recently resorted to advertising senior town planning positions as far away as the greater City of London.
Whilst McGirr is critical at the the Kenneally Government for firstly its lack of recognising the problem and in following that, its lack of foresight in coming up with a solution - he has personally taken up the initiative.
“I’ve sought advice from key stakeholders on the provision of a specifically structured course that can accurately cater for the higher education requirements of town planning”.
Dr McGirr believes that establishing a course at Charles Sturt University to produce qualified regional and urban planners would help address the shortage.
“The NSW government should fund a feasibility study into setting up such a course at CSU,” Dr McGirr said.
Dr McGirr noted that there is a Bachelor or Regional and Urban Planning available at the University of New England but that does not appear to be meeting the current need.
“Charles Sturt University has a proven track record in training professionals who work in regional areas after they graduate,” Dr McGirr added. “It would be an ideal university for running such a course.”