Council
13 October, 2025
Council fails to meet DA commitment
One year in Wingecarribee Shire Council has failed to meet one of its core promises to the community. The latest figures show WSC has the slowest DA assessment time in the state for the 2025-26 financial year to date at 210 days.
One year in, Wingecarribee Shire Council has failed to meet one of its core promises to the community.
The latest figures show WSC has the slowest DA assessment time in the state for the 2025-26 financial year to date at 210 days.
The Minister for Planning’s Expectations Order is for councils to determine DAs this financial year within 105 days.
In his first Mayoral Minute last October Jesse Fitzpatrick said he had been advised by council’s general manager that “improvement initiatives” were underway and that his goal as mayor was to lift the rate of DAs being determined within the Minister’s expected timeframe from 16 per cent to 62 per cent within 12 months.
For 2024/25, council assessed 479 applications but only 29 per cent of them within the expected timeframe of 115 days. So far this financial year, council has assessed 143 applications but only 47 per cent of them within the expected timeframe – now 105 days.
The mayor has taken to social media to praise the work of council’s DA assessment team and the amount it has achieved over the past 12 months.
He wants people to understand that only six councils out of 128 across the state are currently assessing 100 per cent of DAs within expected timeframes.
He also says council critics are failing to acknowledge the sheer number of DAs being lodged in the Wingecarribee or their cost and complexity.
He says council is unlikely to improve on its 210-day average assessment time until it works through a massive backlog of unprocessed DAs.
He says council needs to work through another 40 or 50 DAs and get the backlog down to 150 before there is an overall improvement.
He says staff numbers in the DA assessment team have been tripled to help work through the backlog.
At its meeting on Wednesday night council will set a new goal to exceed the NSW average percentage of DAs being determined within the Minister’s expected timeframe by September 2026. The current average for 2025/26 is 71 per cent.
An update on council’s Development Assessment Action Plan indicates the number of undetermined DAs sitting with council has fallen from 286 in April 2025 to 196 in September 2025 with a target of 150 by June 2026.
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