It was suggested, when I wrote what was to be my farewell post in November, that I might provide a postscript and offer some comment on the results of the December Council elections. Being the obliging sort of guy I am, here you go. (more…)
The QPR Blog
…local government stuff you never even thought to ask about…
Signing Off
By the time most people read this, I will no longer be a councillor, so this will be my last post on Local Government matters. It’s been an interesting, if at times challenging, ride over the last 10 years and I have been encouraged by the positive feedback from readers of my ramblings.
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Development Approval
To close out our recent discussion on the subject of land use zones and permissible land uses, it’s worth looking briefly at a couple of aspects of the approvals process. (more…)
SI Zone Definitions
Following on from last month’s discussion of Standard Instrument (SI) Land Use Zones, let’s take a look at the elements of a Land Use Zone definition. (more…)
SI Land Use Zones
There has been discussion recently in relation to the proposal to rezone parts of our rural residential areas. For residents who have moved into one of these areas since 2014, and even for some who have been there longer, this may all seem more than a little confusing. Without wanting to inflame any political debate, I thought it might be useful to at least provide a little background to the use of the NSW Standard Instrument (SI) template in the preparation of the Palerang Local Environment Plan (PLEP). (more…)
Council Elections (Part 3)
Following on from last month’s post, these were to be my final words on voting in the upcoming [4 September] Council election. Then we received the advice that the elections had been postponed, yet again, to 4 December 2021. But rather than break the flow of our discussion of the election process, and just as much because I didn’t really have anything else immediately at hand to write about, let’s carry on regardless. (more…)
Council Elections (Part 2)
Following from my earlier piece on candidate nominations, I thought it would be useful to cover some of the details of the vote counting process.
This will be, by necessity, a simplified overview. The interested reader should consult Schedule 5 of the Local Government (General) Regulation 2005 for a formal account of the process involved. (more…)
Council Elections
I jumped the gun a bit last time I broached this subject, but who could have foreseen what was about to happen back then? Regardless, here we are, with the revised NSW Council election date [4 September 2021] now squarely on the horizon. I’ll have a bit more to say about the election process in the coming months, but I thought that, first up, I might deal with some of the not-so-obvious ‘rules of engagement’ that might help to inform any decision to nominate as a candidate. (more…)
Swimming Pools
We’re on a bit of roll now discussing legislative changes, so here’s another one for you to contemplate over the Christmas break. The Swimming Pools Act 1992 and its Regulations work together with Australian Standard 1926 (AS1926) to establish the safety standards for ‘backyard’ swimming pools. The Swimming Pools Regulation, in particular, was updated in 2018 to clarify a number of matters relating to swimming pool safety. (more…)
Weeds
What better subject for discussion this month. I don’t know about you, but not having had to take the lawn mower out of the shed (I have one of the manually motivated variety—I don’t have a scythe though, I’m not that manual) for the last two years, I’ve now had to mow three times in almost as many weeks! And that’s just the stuff I’d like to have growing—the stuff I don’t want seems to be growing even faster! (more…)