Open Access Information

‘Open access information’ is information we must make publicly available, free of charge, on our website. Where this is not possible, you can apply for the information for free by making an informal request.

You can also inspect and copy open access information free of charge at Council’s office at 65 Green Street, Lockhart NSW 2656 (photocopying/printing charges may apply if the information is online).

The following open access information is available online:

Development application/planning information

Development application (DA) information including plans, statements of environmental effects, approvals and determinations are not currently available on the website.

You can apply for the information for free by making an informal request and sending it to mail@lockhart.nsw.gov.au.

Strategic planning information is available here.

Approvals, orders and related documents

Currently unavailable. Please make an informal request for this information.

Information about Council

Policies (including the Councillor Expenses and Facilities Policy)
Code of Conduct
Code of Meeting Practice
Annual reports
Annual financial reports
Auditor’s reports
Management plans (Currently unavailable. Please make an informal request for this information.)
EEO Management Plan
Plans of Management for community land (Currently unavailable. Please make an informal request for this information.)
Agendas and minutes of Council meetings.

Registers

Council keeps a number of registers. Some are required by legislation, others are kept to help us deliver services and to respond to enquiries. A number of the registers are ‘open access’. These are registers that Council must make available on our website.

The Disclosure Log records information about access applications that we consider may be of interest to other members of the public.

The following registers are not currently available on Council’s website but may be inspected at Council’s office, 65 Green Street Lockhart NSW 2656, during normal opening hours.

Land register
Register of investments
Delegations register

The register of current delegations of disclosures of political donations is available on the NSW Electoral Commission’s website here.

Disclosure of Interests Returns

Under clause 4.21 of the Code of Conduct, certain council officials, namely councillors and designated persons, are required to disclose their personal interests in publicly available Disclosure of Interests Returns.

The Lockhart Shire Council’s General Manager, Director Corporate and Community Services, Director of Engineering and Director of Planning and Environmental Services are designated persons for the purposes of clause 4.21.

Disclosure of Interests Returns are an important accountability and transparency mechanism for promoting community confidence in council decision making by councillors and others and for ensuring that they disclose and appropriately manage conflicts of interest that they may have in matters dealt with by the council.

A councillor or designated person must make and lodge with the General Manager a return in the form set out in schedule 2 of the Code of Conduct, disclosing the councillor’s or designated person’s interests as specified in schedule 1 to the code within 3 months after:

becoming a councillor or designated person, and
at 30 June of each year, and
the councillor or designated person becoming aware of an interest they are required to disclose under schedule 1 that has not been previously disclosed in a return lodged under paragraphs (a) or (b).

Clause 4.24 of the Code of Conduct states that the General Manager must keep a register of returns disclosing interests that are required to be lodged with the General Manager under a code of conduct. Pursuant to Clause 4.25 of the Code, Disclosure of Interests Returns required to be lodged with the General Manager must be tabled at a meeting of the council, being the first meeting held after the last day specified by the code for lodgement.

Councillors’ and designated persons’ Disclosure of Interests Returns are prescribed as open access information for local government under Schedule 1 to the Government Information (Public Access) Regulation 2018.

Information Guide

Council’s Information Guide details the various kinds of information held by Council and the ways in which it can be accessed. It also describes the structure and functions of Council and how members of the public can participate in Council decision-making.