Hi,
I am Judy Birrell, Senior Planning Officer at the Local Government and Shires Associations of NSW (LGSA). The LGSA is a partner with the Department of Planning in the EHC project.
Through the EHC Pilot Project team and the Local Government Customer Service Network, we recently surveyed customer service staff at NSW Councils to obtain some bench marking data and to highlight the challenges the customer service teams face regarding exempt or complying development applications. Thank you to those who took the time to respond to this survey.
The survey showed that:
- Councils’ customer service staff spends, on average, between 0 and 40 hours per week answering questions regarding exempt or complying development.
- 9% of respondent Councils offer an out-of-hours call centre operation for development and building applications.
- 45% of respondent Councils offer an online development enquiry system, of these 40% provide an online lodgement tool.
These areas seem to lend themselves to the opportunity of implementing efficiencies to minimise costs, staffing resource time and to improve the service that councils offer to their local communities. The EHC Pilot Project aims to do just that.
We have recently been discussing the use of electronic signatures on official documentation, and I would be interested to get your input on this: Does your organisation allow the use of electronic signatures? We are interested in whether your council has looked at using electronic signatures, reasons for adopting or not adopting them and your experiences with using electronic signatures.
I look forward to reading your comments.
Judy Birrell
Senior Policy Officer - Planning, Local Government Shires Associations of NSW