Council
urged to activate country
planning board
HONIARA City Council has been urged to quickly appoint new members of the Town and Country Planning Board.
The call comes in light of the increasing illegal construction work in Honiara.
It’s understood a lot of people have gone ahead with their construction after their applications for building permits had been delayed.
The Town and Country Planning Board, which is tasked screened building applications, had been without a secretary since last year.
This had resulted applications piling up at the council’s physical planning division.
City mayor Andrew Mua said since he took office late last year, he had acted to appoint new members to the board.
But he said the delay to get the board back into action was with the gazetting of the new appointments.
“My office is working hard at this time to speed up the process with the Attorney General’s chamber and other relevant authorities,” Mr Mua said.
He said prior to him taking on the council’s leadership, the board has been without a secretary after the previous one was recalled back to the Ministry of Lands.
“Since then, our physical planning division was without a head, who should be the secretary of the board,” Mr Mua explained.
“But early this year, the Ministry of Lands appointed a new officer who is now heading our planning division.
“To ensure he becomes the secretary to the board, he must be listed into the new Town and Country Planning board.
“We have done that process but what’s left to be done is the gazetting of the board members,” Mr Mua said.
The mayor said he appreciated the public concerns about the matter and hopes it would be addressed soon so that the board could function again.
By Daniel Namosuaia
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