SCOTT v WOLLONGONG CITY COUNCIL [1992] NSWCA 227

SCOTT v WOLLONGONG CITY COUNCIL

SUPREME COURT OF NEW SOUTH WALES COURT OF APPEAL

SAMUELS AP, MEAGHER and HANDLEY JJA 16 and 18 October 1991, 12 March 1992 [1992] NSWCA 227

LAND AND ENVIRONMENT — CONSENT SUBJECT TO CONDITIONS — DEVELOPMENT CONSENT LAND AND ENVIRONMENT — appeal from decision of Land and Environment Court dismissing Class 4 application for declaration that development consent granted by responsible authority was void on the ground (the only issue calling for report) that the consent subject to conditions lacked finality. Held that since the consent did not leave for later decision an important aspect of the development the decision upon which could alter the proposed development in a fundamental respect it did not want for finality: Mison and Ors v Randwick Municipal Council and Ors (1991) 23 NSWLR 734 at 737 and 740 applied.

Samuels JA This is an appeal from a decision of Cripps CJ of the Land and Environment Court sitting in its Class 4 Jurisdiction. The appellants represent a group known as "Residents of Belmore Basin" and unsuccessfully sought a declaration that a development consent granted by the Wollongong City Council ("the first respondent") to Job Creators Pty Ltd ("the second respondent') for the erection of a five level 80 unit motel in Wollongong was void upon a very large number of grounds. These included, for example, the allegation that the first respondent failed to give proper weight to the vast majority of matters specified in s90 of the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979, considering, in effect, only the social and economic effect of the development in the locality as prescribed by s90(1)(d). These objections allied to other copious complaints (many of which are no longer pressed) about the way in which the development application had been dealt with, and the consent ultimately granted, led the learned judge to speak of the "scatter gun approach adopted by the applicants in the formulation and presentation of their case" which, he thought, had "given the litigation an appearance of complexity beyond that which a proper consideration of the issues requires."