Toowoomba councillor Kerry Shine to push motion for full disclosure of legal costs involving planning, environment court battles

Exclusive: Kerry Shine wants the Toowoomba council to have to report the full cost to ratepayers of its legal stoushes with developers on controversial projects, a push for greater ‘transparency and accountability.

The cost of the Toowoomba Regional Council’s legal battles involving controversial developments could be made public if a new motion gets enough support this week.

Councillor Kerry Shine has revealed he will push for two motions at Tuesday’s meeting as part of reforms to the organisation’s planning and development approvals process, particularly with controversial projects.

The most prominent of the two would see the council publish the “full costs of litigation in the planning and environment court at the conclusion of that matter”.

This relates to any cases where the council has had to defend its decision, usually to reject, a development.

Currently, discussions around legal matters are kept confidential along with the legal fees.

Mr Shine, a former lawyer who was Queensland’s Attorney-General under Peter Beattie, said releasing the costs would demonstrate the TRC’s values of “transparency and accountability”.

Councillor Kerry Shine during a council meeting. Picture: Kevin Farmer

The council’s handling of planning matters has been the subject of controversy for many years, with the organisation regularly heading to the planning and environment court due to an appeal on its decisions.

In many cases, elected officials have voted against a development at a special meeting — even when their own planning officers have recommended its approval.

Notable examples include the city’s newest McDonald’s in Harlaxton last year, which was knocked back by councillors but eventually approved through the court system.

Most recently, the council actually reversed its decision to reject last November the latest stage of a new housing estate in Cotswold Hills on the back of community pressure.

The Toowoomba Regional Council initially rejected Homecorp Construction's proposal for more than 170 lots at Cotswold Hills, making up the balance of Essence Estate.

This was almost immediately appealed by the developer Homecorp, something foreshadowed by Mr Shine at the meeting given the support council officers had in it.

Mr Shine’s second motion for Tuesday’s meeting would tighten the criteria for councillors to “call in” a development for a special meeting.

If approved, six councillors would be needed to call in a project for a meeting, up from the current minimum of four.

“Such a decision sets aside the delegations to staff under the delegations register, and places the responsibility under the Planning Act and other relevant acts, with the council as delegate and assessment manager,” Mr Shine’s motion read.

The motion is what the local branch of the Urban Developers Institute of Australia asked for in a letter to chief executive Brian Pidgeon back in August, after a planned over-50s lifestyle resort was held up for months due to being called in by elected officials.

A proposal for a retirement village off Hursley Road in Torrington by Torrington Project Pty Ltd.

“We’d like to know the reason for (calling a project in) and the councillors who called it in,” UDIA branch president Rob Weymouth told News Corp at the time.

“If they want to call it in, the councillors should own up.”