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Business View Australia - March-April 2016 39
INFRASTRUCTURE
electronically, significantly reducing
processing times.
The new method also eliminates
the need to submit large amounts of
paper documents to Council. In 2014-
15, Council approved more than $345
million worth of new developments
from 983 applicants.
Port Stephens Council’s executive
team is headed by its General
Manager, Wayne Wallis. Staff are
divided into four groups; Facilities
& Services, Development Services,
Corporate Services and the Office
of the General Manager. This makes
for greater focus and allows a high
degree of service to be delivered to
residents.
These four groups are further divided
into 12 service units with a total
employee strength of about 500. In
addition, a large volunteer strength,
approximately 800 in number,
supports Council in its activities.
Wayne Wallis has been successful
in making Port Stephens Council
achieve its operational objectives.
Speaking about the achievements
of Council, Wayne Wallis said,
“We made significant additions to
our trophy cabinet with a swag of
awards recognising the excellence
of our organisation across a range
of fields, including planning, tourism,
human resources and economic
development.
“Of particular note is our commitment
to the safety of our workforce that
resulted in the lowest workers
compensation premium on record for
2015-2016 of $568,590, down from
$1.86 million in 2009-2010.”
In the recent past, Port Stephens
Council has won the 2014 Planning
Institute of Australia (NSW) award for
improving planning processes and
practices and the 2015 StateCover
excellence award for workplace
health and safety. It was also highly
commended for excellence in
workforce management at the NSW
Local Government excellence awards.
Among the other accolades that Port
Stephens Council has to its credit
is the 2015 Trip Advisor excellence
award for Fingal Bay, Shoal Bay and
Halifax Holiday Parks. It also received
silver at the Hunter/Central Coast
tourism awards for excellence in the
visitor information services category
for Nelson Bay Visitor Information
Centre.
Capital works section
About four years ago, Port Stephens
Council restructured its services and
facilities group. A decision was made
at that time to introduce a section
manager who would be in charge of
the whole section works process. This
section would handle all activities
from survey and design right through
to actual construction on the ground.
In the last three years, there has