A Consumer's Guide
We have produced this guide to summarise briefly the manner in
which the Planning and Environment Court operates. It is not meant
to take the place of specific advice in relation to any particular
matter, but to provide background as to the role of the Court, how
it works and the procedural steps which most cases follow.
Role of the court
The appeal is a hearing anew - the Court's role is not to
decide whether the original decision of the local government was
right or wrong, but rather to approach the development application
afresh.
A consequence of this is that the parties are not restricted in
a hearing to the matters put before the local government during the
development application process - the applicant can advance new
arguments, the submitters can also do so, and the local government
(if it refused the application) is not limited to its reasons for
refusal.
