Council
6 April, 2026
Slight improvement, but Wingecarribee still lagging on DA processing times
Wingecarribee Shire Council is still the worst performing council in NSW when it comes to DA processing times – despite consistent assurances from Mayor Jesse Fitzpatrick and senior staff that things are on the improve.
Wingecarribee Shire Council is still the worst performing council in NSW when it comes to DA processing times – despite consistent assurances from Mayor Jesse Fitzpatrick and senior staff that things are on the improve.
The latest figures for the 2025/26 financial year (for the period ending February 28) show council had the slowest average assessment time in the state with 189 days for 367 assessments.
Temora and Narromine had the fastest average time with 21 days for 65 and 35 assessments respectively.
Wingecarribee assessed just 57 per cent of DAS within the expected timeframe set by the Minister of 105 days – compared to a state average of 71 per cent.
Sixty-six per cent of councils across the state were meeting the Minister’s expectations.
Wingecarribee had an average DA lodgement time of 14 days with just 23 per cent meeting expectations.
State-wide the average was 59 per cent of DA lodgements meeting expectations.
Admittedly, the latest figures do show a slight improvement from late last year when DA processing times for Wingecarribee were sitting at more than 200 days – almost double the Minister’s expectations.
As already reported by The Southern Wire, the majority of councillors believe council is doing everything in its power to improve DA processing times and have commended staff on their efforts.
They rejected calls at the October 2025 to revise council’s existing action plan and to tale a more aggressive approach.
Instead, it set a new goal to exceed the NSW average of DAs being determined within the Minister’s expected timeframe by September 2026.
That means council will need to make significant improvements over the next five months given it is currently 14 per cent behind the state average.
At the beginning of its term council set a goal of assessing 62 per cent of DAs within the expected timeframe within its first year but at the end of July 2025 only 49 per cent of DAs were being assessed within expectations.
Mayor Fitzpatrick has blamed the delays on a massive backlog of DAs council inherited after the September 2024 election.
He has said DA processing times will drop “dramatically” once the backlog has been cleared.
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