From the Newsroom

Building boom prompts CVC to employ more staff

Geoff Helisma|

 

At last week’s July 27 Clarence valley Council (CVC) meeting, councillors unanimously supported employing “an additional senior building surveyor, an additional district building surveyor/building inspector and an additional planning support officer”.

Salaries and on costs for the three positions are estimated to be $250,000 a year.

The report to council states that the planning support officer will be appointed to a fixed two-year term.

The council’s combined building and planning services income in 2020/21 was $2,202,701; up from the previous financial years: $1,425,395 (2017/18), $1,512,337 (2018/19) and $1,428,597 (2019/20).

Staff advised councillors: “Several written complaints have recently been received concerning the level of service currently being provided.

“Workloads are expected to increase significantly with the impending release to the market of approximately 2,000 additional residential allotments.

“…Due to the current high workloads, there is no spare capacity in the team to provide adequate relief to staff, who take leave for various reasons, which leads to additional stress on remaining staff and extended processing times for applications and responses to complaints and general enquiries.”

Acting general manager, Laura Black, advised councillors that the additional revenue would cover salary and on costs.