Report of inquiry into performance of Town of East Fremantle tabled in Parliament

23/11/99
Local Government Minister Paul Omodei today tabled in Parliament the report of the inquiry into the performance of the Town of East Fremantle.
"The report does not reflect well upon the East Fremantle Town Council," Mr Omodei told Parliament.
He said the inquiry did not identify any criminal conduct, but found that:

• the many problems within the operations of the town limit its capacity to achieve an acceptable level of efficiency and effectiveness;
• the council has failed to properly fulfil its role as the statutory planning authority for its district;
• the town fails to meet the standard of compliance required of local government under the Local Government Act 1995;
  and -
• the town provides a level of customer service below that expected of a local government.

"However, it is in the execution of its planning responsibilities that the inquiry is most critical," Mr Omodei said.
"The council's town planning scheme remains relatively unchanged since 1982, contrary to the statutory requirement to review it every five years.
"The report finds that the council uses misleading and inappropriate policies to control or inhibit development and justify its position. Some of these policies do not have legislative backing, while others conflict with the council's Town Planning Scheme.
"Indeed, on the basis of these planning issues alone I gave serious consideration to the full range of options available to me in dealing with a council which '.is operating well below the standards of compliance expected of local government.and generally below the standards of customer service given by other local governments.'."
Mr Omodei said the report's 46 recommendations cover a wide range of statutory and modern management issues which the council and CEO needed to address including:

• complete the review of the Town Planning Scheme;
• ensure that town planning policies are consistent with the scheme;
• address possible illegal delegations of decision-making powers under the scheme;
• discontinue illegal heritage assessment fees;
• the development of records management procedures; and -
• the development of complaint handling procedures.

"I will be requesting the executive director to reappoint the inquiry to oversee and report on council's response to the recommendations," the Minister said.
"A further adverse report by the inquiry will result in my reconsidering the options available to me.
"I am deeply concerned at the extent and breadth of the issues that were subject to negative comment by the inquiry.
"The underlying message to the Town of East Fremantle is to move quickly to address the report and its recommendations."
Media contact: Hugh Ryan 9213 6700