Szabo & Associates News & Updates

New rules, which took effect on 3^rd April 2023, have been introduced by the Environmental Planning and Assessment (Conflict of Interest) Regulation 2022, affecting council-related development applications on land under the 'control' of a local council.

A Council, under the Protection of the Environment Operations Act 1997, can issue an environmental prevention notice if it ‘reasonably suspects that an activity has been or is being carried out in an environmentally unsatisfactory manner at any premises or by any person’. The aim is to ensure that the activity if carried on in the future, is done so in an environmentally satisfactory manner.

In NSW, the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) issues environment protection licences to owners or operators of various types of industrial premises under the Protection of the Environment Operations Act 1997.  

When NSW established its Land & Environment Court in 1980, it was the world's first specialist superior Court of its type. It hears environmental, development, building and planning disputes. Szabo & Associates Solicitors provide expert advice and representation in litigation in the Court.

The NSW Land and Environment Court is a specialist Court dealing with matters such as development approvals, compulsory purchase compensation, prosecutions for environmental offences and other planning and land use issues, including civil enforcement proceedings, as illustrated in a recent case.