Katrina Tonniges organises meeting for City of Newcastle development issues

Katrina Tonniges said she had experienced a great deal of stress trying to get City of Newcastle to act on non-compliant work next door to her Kotara home, where development consent was granted for a house and secondary dwelling, pool and retaining walls and demolition of structures.

City of Newcastle said "through extensive correspondence and engagement with all parties", the council investigated and issued compliance action, including a stop work order, in relation to non-compliant components of the development.

"Investigations are continuing," the spokesperson said.

"A modification application is now pending determination. This application is on the agenda for council's Public Voice Committee meeting on 17 October 2023 where both parties will have the opportunity to make presentations to council.

"The application will then be reported to council's Development Applications Committee for determination taking into consideration the relevant planning legislation and requirements."

But Ms Tonniges said City of Newcastle had not enforced its own conditions and felt the council had given her "nothing to see here" type responses when she had raised issues. She said her experience led her to reach out to others and she soon realised "many" shared her frustrations.

"There is a groundswell of discontent," she said.

Ms Tonniges has organised a public meeting on October 7, where she said the group plans to call for the creation of a planning ombudsman to speak inside the council on behalf of residents.

"We are all residents," she said. "We all deserve to live in our homes peacefully and trust that council will ensure development is built as it was approved."

One of the speakers at the meeting will be Judy Tynan, who has similar dissatisfaction with the council's handling of non-compliant work next to her home at The Hill.

"I applaud Katrina for founding this and getting the community together," Ms Tynan said. "She reached out to me when she saw my article in the Herald.

"It's a really lonely business managing these situations. It's very isolating.

"Hopefully this will be the start of some change."

Other speakers include Merewether resident Simon Bowman and solicitor James Ryan.

The City of Newcastle spokesperson said in the past year, the council had successfully processed almost 1400 development application matters.

"Whilst complaints about non-compliance are taken seriously, they represent a fraction of the positive interactions we have in terms of the DA process," the spokesperson said.

"CN is committed to enhancing customer experience through the introduction of improved systems such as the award-winning accelerated development application pathway, which streamlines the process for lower risk developments and allows staff time to be focused on more complex and challenging proposals."

Ms Tonniges said the council was "quick to tell the public how quickly it approves development, but when those developments are poorly managed and badly affect neighbours, it feels like the council washes its hands of responsibility."

The community meeting will take place at New Lambton Scout Hall On October 7 from 3-5pm.

People interested in attending can visit the group's social media page.