The National Trust has announced that the NSW Planning Bills will be brought back for consideration in February, 2014. This follows a number of amendments in the Legislative Council.

It was the Trust that lobbied successfully to amend the draft planning bills in order to give heritage protection a better chance.

Whereas the objects of the Act had omitted any mention of heritage protection, now they do. Also, appeal rights are retained and code assessment for State Heritage listings and local heritage and heritage conservation areas (HCAs) is no longer mandatory.

The Trust had concerns that local government would utilise code assessment for development affecting local heritage and HCAs and is pleased that one of the amendments has effectively removed “Code Assessment” from the legislation. The Trust also welcomes the amendment to the Mining State Environmental Planning Policy that gave economic considerations higher priority than conservation.

The imbalance has now been corrected in the amended Bill.

Another issue is that the legislation would have allowed major modifications to already approved State Significant Developments i.e. massive tower developments or mine expansions without adequate impact assessment. This provision has also been removed from the legislation.