THE George Town Council municipal planner was allegedly instructed to "cut and paste" an applicant's documents to present them as her own, the council heard at its meeting yesterday.
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During public question time, community members John Austin, Graeme Neilson and Gerald O'Doherty quoted transcripts of an interview with municipal planner Justine Brooks-Bedelph from the recent public works committee hearing into the LINC hub development for Regent Square.
Prompted by questions from Bass Greens MHA and committee member Kim Booth, Ms Brooks-Bedelph said she was instructed to copy and paste applicant JMG planning consultants' application into a submission to be put into the council's upcoming meeting agenda.
Mr Booth asked her: "The submission that actually went to council was the applicant's application dressed up with your signature and letterhead on the top of their application?" She replied: "Yes".
Ms Brooks-Bedelph also confirmed that council general manager Stephen Brown reworded part of the applicant's application to be put into the revised planning scheme. Mr Brown was stood down in November pending workplace allegation investigations.
Mr Neilson asked Mayor Roger Broomhall if he believed the council would be open to litigation because of this.
Mr Austin called on the Mayor to resign.
Cr Broomhall said he would not be resigning or making any comment while investigations into Mr Brown were under way.
Director of Local Government Philip Hoysted confirmed that the council- initiated investigation was ongoing.
He said claims were originally raised as part of inquiries into the council.
He said the exact nature of the complaints and who made them should remain confidential.