Wellington Shire Council’s Planning Department receives Excellence Award

Wellington Shire Council’s Planning Department has been recognised for their ‘excellence in dealing with subdivision applications’ by Consulting Surveyors of Victoria.

Council received the 2017 Award for Municipal Excellence – Rural Category at the Consulting Surveyors of Victoria conference held in Melbourne on Friday 17 March, which was attended by 260 delegates from across Victoria.

The award was formally presented to Council at it’s meeting on Tuesday 4 April. Wellington Shire Council Mayor Carolyn Crossley commended the Planning Department council officers on the great work that they do. She said: “This is a fantastic achievement and a great recognition for the council officers. They consistently perform at a high standard and this award acknowledges this but their achievements are also backed up with statistics and feedback.

“The ‘Know Your Council’ website shows that during 2015/16 Council issued 96% of its planning permits within 60 days compared with other Councils averaging 70%, and 100% of its decisions were upheld at VCAT compared to an average 67% for all other Councils.

“The last annual customer survey results reported 86% of permit applicants rated their ‘overall experience’ in dealing with Council planners as ‘good to excellent’.

“A recent assessment undertaken by the Red Tape Commissioner identified that ‘Wellington was unambiguously one of the best performing Councils in the region' and that ‘Council’s delegation system is highly regarded and seen as a model for other councils'.

“I believe that you are a model not only for Council’s in the region but for all Council’s across Victoria,” concluded the Mayor.