More than 100 development industry professionals, along with Councillors and Council staff, attended the ‘Building a strong foundation for the future’ forum at Central Coast Council on Wednesday 19 March.

The event offered a forum for Council to better understand the barriers to development and for the industry to better understand Council’s processes, with the event generating helpful insights, ideas and improvement suggestions.

Central Coast Council processes the highest volume of planning applications in NSW, with more than 2000 lodged last year.

With a rapidly growing community, understanding of both Council's and developer's concerns can help with working together on solutions.

Council’s new Development Assessment Improvement Project, outlined at the forum, was well received by attendees, noting that developers have told Council they are frustrated with local and state planning and want more collaboration.

Council is committed to recruiting the right people, streamlining systems, and improving our communication and customer service.

The forum gave Council an opportunity to show participants how they can also achieve faster processing times by submitting more complete applications.

Mayor McKinna said the forum is the first step in a long-term journey.