Why Are Residents of Devonport, Balmain and Mosman Interested in Leppington ?

During this week we were reviewing some feedback on new roads in Leppington as part of a development application. When reading the public submissions, we noticed that comments were being received from the “community” in Devonport, Balmain and Mosman (amongst other places such as the Grampians) against the same specific road change. One Leppington local was on the record as opposing the change. A few years ago, research was conducted on the intensity of interest that locals have in development matters. The findings were that most people want to know about matters next to them, sometimes in their street and perhaps in their suburb. There is clearly campaigning going on that is distorting the planning process – unless these were all Leppington locals were providing commentary from their holiday abodes. It is probably time for the Minister for Planning to step in to improve the integrity of the planning system for local communities. The community should be consulted but views of the local community should have sovereignty in the process and not be steam rolled by people who have very little stake in the planning process but are very good at activating social media networks.