North East mayor reacts to Coalition plan to help small councils better deal with planning bottlenecks

Nationals leader Peter Walsh said last month that if elected the Coalition would provide a flying squad of planners to councils to hasten and simplify approvals.

Cr O'Connor said she saw merit in the plan but added other options needed to be examined for rural councils that struggle to attract and retain planning division staff.

She said that included fostering partnerships between smaller municipalities and large metropolitan councils where they could be mentoring, an exchange of ideas and swapping of staff.

A recently report for Rural Councils Victoria highlights some of the growth trends likely to be experienced by the North East's smaller local government areas, i.e. Alpine, Benalla, Indigo, Moira and Towong.

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Indigo is at No.6 for percentage change in new businesses from 2018-19 to 2019-20 and at No.9 for absolute change in the same category over the same period.

It is the only North East council in the top 12 for those measures.

However, Alpine Shire has experienced the highest growth in arts and recreation services and information media and telecommunications across Victoria's rural councils.

Reflecting Victorian government investment, Benalla tops public administration and safety growth with an 80 per cent annual rise.

Towong was singled out in the report for having the biggest turnaround in population, down 145 from 2000 to 2020 but expected to grow by 144 from 2020 to 2036.

Cr O'Connor, who is deputy chair of Rural Councils Victoria, said the data was important but also noted it predated this year's pandemic census.