Gunnie Pty Ltd v Moreton Bay Regional Council

[2011] QPEC 112

[2011] QPEC 112

PLANNING AND ENVIRONMENT COURT

JUDGE ROBIN QC

P & E Appeal No 2219 of 2011

GUNNIE PTY LTD	Appellant
and
MORETON BAY REGIONAL COUNCIL & ANOTHER	Respondents

BRISBANE

..DATE

29/7/2011

JUDGMENT

CATCHWORDS

Sustainable Planning Act 2009 s 482(2)(a)

Extension of time to notify Chief Executive of appeal by rival child care operator against a development approval - Co-respondent's name corrected - court in favouring appellant's and Council's request for a more leisurely timetable for steps in the appeal expresses view that the appeal hearing ought not be further delayed
HIS HONOUR:  This is an appeal against an approval for a child-care centre by a commercial rival, a circumstance adding particular potency to the dispute this morning which comes down a timetabling one and whether the appeal should be allocated to the October pool or the November pool.  The earlier date, if it could be achieved, would result in an unusually early hearing perhaps, the appeal having commenced only on the 26th of June this year.  The timetable proposed by Ms Whitehouse for the co-respondent developer is tight.

What influences me in the end to adopt a more relaxed one is that the Council, which has approved the development proposal and will presumably continue to do so in the appeal, appears as anxious to have extra time, particularly for the engagement of experts, as if anything more anxious, than the appellant.

Bearing in mind that it's an appeal by a commercial rival in which the court's sympathies would ordinarily be expected to lie with the co-respondent, I express the view now that the other parties have had a significant indulgence and it would be highly undesirable if “slippage” - as it's euphemistically called - not the responsibility of the co-respondent, boded to defer a hearing of the appeal until next year.

The issues for today other than timetabling of steps towards a hearing of the appeal, concern a change in name of the co-respondent which ought to be identified as I B Town Planning and an extension of time for notifying the Chief Executive of the appeal under section 482(2)(a) of the Sustainable Planning Act 2009. That step has now been taken, eliciting a response that the Chief Executive has no interest in participating in the proceeding.

Orders as per initialled draft.

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