The real story of planning a development through Woollahra Council.

Like any council they will make you wait, not necessarily because there is a queue. They are not good at updating you, and they will frequently dish out excuses, saying “Sorry to keep you waiting” would be an unusual occurance in my experience to date.

The main Woolahra Council website:
http://www.woollahra.nsw.gov.au/

Building and Development Links
http://www.woollahra.nsw.gov.au/building_and_development

Phone numbers and contact:
+61 2 9391 7000

Note: If you ever want to speak to a planner call early as possible. They all mysteriously vanish in the afternoons.

Getting to them directly with email:
Email seems to be effective. Not all email addresses are listed at the site but if you know the name of the person you need to talk to then then there is a pretty simple way of getting to them:

firstname.lastname@woollahra.nsw.gov.au

I’d also suggest if you are using Office 2007 to request a read receipt, just for the hell of it.

Council Wards - they may be able to help.
I have discovered since starting this blog that there are people in council who represent the various wards that are concerned with these matters. I used the above process to contact one particular council ward who has been fantastic. If you do suspect something is being handled badly I would recommend finding someone in council who does not have an agenda (it appears that the politics within planning are not as simple as it should be). Although it has not been a solution for me yet, it has been a large help. I am not mentioning names here as I believe it will serve matters better in the long term as one particular councilor whom I have come to trust is committed to weeding out some of the problems I am having - something I do not wish to disturb at this stage.

records@woollahra.nsw.gov.au is a general address. Not sure who gets these emails.