Kingborough Council is introducing improvements to its statutory planning functions to deliver better services to the community following a comprehensive review of its planning services.
Acting Mayor, Christian Street said Council commissioned the review following ongoing community concerns about how effective planning services were being delivered.
“As a Council, we needed to ask the hard questions about how we could do better, and what we had to do to ensure the community was getting the best possible planning services,” Mayor Street said.
“Planning can be complex, and as a Council, we need to comply with state legislation.
“We also understand that the planning process can have a significant impact on landowners and the broader community, and we are committed to improving how we deliver this service.”
The review, conducted by Circular South, made 45 recommendations, of which 10 will be implemented as a priority, including:
• Improve performance reporting to better monitor workload, quality, timeliness and customer service;
• Improve clarity of roles and responsibilities in the team to support consistency and continuity;
• Create a central planning knowledge hub for procedures, templates and guidance;
• Develop clearer assessment guidance to improve consistency in decision-making;
• Reduce avoidable requests for further information to minimise delays and additional work for the applicant;
• Establish a clearer pre-lodgement service for applicants;
• Improve the Development page on the website to make planning requirements and next steps clearer;
• Regularly review customer journeys to improve the planning experience;
• Improve public communication about the planning process and decision-making;
• Review how planning resources are allocated to ensure they are focused where they can have the greatest impact on efficiency, responsiveness and customer experience.
Mayor Street said these would form the foundation for further improvements.
“We have welcomed the findings and recommendations delivered in this review and will be implementing them in due course. These initial recommendations form the basis for ongoing improvement and underline our commitment to the community.”
“We would also like to acknowledge the professionalism, expertise and commitment of the planning team, whose high level of engagement throughout the review process played a key role in identifying and advancing meaningful improvement initiatives.
“This review gives us a clear starting point, and our focus now is on putting the recommendations into action and delivering better planning outcomes that the community needs.”
He said the review was not about changing planning rules, but how Council delivers planning services.
“This is firmly aimed at making our processes more transparent and more efficient, along with understanding what people engaged with the planning system need and want.”
“We want planning to be better in Kingborough. We want people to know we are working hard to deliver what they need when they engage with our planning system.”
View the Kingborough Council Planning Function Review June 2026.
