The Department of Planning advertised that the draft VPA would be on public exhibition from October 11 to November 7, but was not actually up until October 14. The planning department has placed an advertisement in today’s Singleton Argus notifying the public of the new exhibition period, October 14 to November 17.

The exhibition period for the Huntlee New Town SSS finishes on October 29, a time frame that Sweet Water Action Group president Chris Parker says puts the community at a disadvantage.

When the draft VPA was not able to be viewed by the public by October 12, Mr Parker called for the Minister for Planning to give a commitment to extend the exhibition period for the whole SSS proposal by at least a further four weeks.

“So the community has enough time to see these Voluntary Planning documents and respond in our main submission,” Mr Parker said in a statement.

“Everything about this process is weighted against the community.

“We are just trying to have a fair dinkum say on behalf of the local community, we are not wealthy business people, and the least the minister could do is make sure we can have a chance to respond properly.”

Huntlee will also be a part of the planning department’s new transparency assessment process announced in July this year. This will see submissions placed on the department of planning website 10 days after the exhibition period has closed.

The department will continue to protect the privacy of submitters by removing names from submissions if requested by the submitter.

To view the draft VPA or SSS go http://majorprojects.planning.nsw .gov.au and submissions need to be submitted to Director – Strategic Assessment, Department of Planning, GPO Box 39, Sydney NSW 2001.