bad legal systems

Read this letter sent to the principle registrar of VCAT by a resident from Knoxfield:

Dear VCAT,
I won’t be attending this hearing as I have already wasted too many days off work at previous VCAT hearings.

There is no point in putting in a written submission based on my own objections to this development as VCAT (Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal) have publically stated that concerns/objections by members of the public do not count and won’t be taken into consideration.

In every VCAT[1] case that I have been involved in across our local area the developer has always managed to have the council refusal overturned despite council rejecting their applications and many local residents posting valid objections.

The developers legal council are extremely well prepared and no expense is spared in the preparation of their case. They can hire lawyers & barristers to search every loophole and rubbish every legitimate objection by council and members of the public. They regularly submit revised plans at the VCAT hearing, at the last minute, to win favor in their cases (I have seen this on many occasions).

VCAT is not the unbiased umpire that it was originally intended to be. It is now a defacto planning approval body with no real interest or knowledge of the local area where these inappropriate developments will be built.

VCAT is responsible to no one and answerable to no one.

If VCAT were truly unbiased then the majority of rulings would confirm the local councils professional planning assessments. Instead we see the majority of council rejections overturned in favour of the developer despite them not meeting local council approval.

There is a huge public groundswell of resentment across Melbourne at the way developers can use VCAT to circumvent valid local council decisions and completely ignore local residents objections and concerns.

VCAT must be drastically overhauled before residents and councils can have any faith that it is a fair and just umpire in planning review decisions.

ABC news report on council anger at VCAT powers.

[1] [CAT stands for the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal. It is supposed to dispense justice cheaply and democratically for Victorians. But it has become expensive, biased and corrupted to satisfy developers.