Chris Berry believes it’s his expertise and strong passion for local government that has him in good stead to perform in his new role as Yass Valley Council’s Director of Planning and Environmental Services.
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Mr Berry has replaced Paul De Szell in the high-profile position and has brought with him a wealth of experience working in local government.
The avid road cyclist only recently finished his tenure as General Manager at Goulburn Mulwaree Council and said, while he’ll miss that job, it’s good to get back to his roots.
“I think I’ll miss some parts of that job but the good thing is that without that broader responsibility I can now focus on something and my strength and my training has always been in planning anyway.
“Planning is the area where there is likely to be the most controversy in the community and people are likely to have strong views for a project or against a project so this job allows me to focus on that and it’s something I’m keen to do.”
Raised in Melbourne, Mr Berry has completed 13 years of tertiary study at three universities and said everything he’s achieved was done to further his career and get him to where he is today.
He has worked in local government in Melbourne, Armidale and Goulburn and said there is something really special about it.
“Being part of the community and working closely with the community is certainly something I put great value on,” he said.
Coming from Goulburn he said he has a pretty solid grasp of what Yass is all about.
“I come with some knowledge of the area,” he said.
“Obviously not the detailed knowledge but I come with some broad knowledge of the area.
“Yass is part of this strong local government community around the ACT and because Goulburn is part of that the issues that Yass has been facing are similar to many issues Goulburn is facing.”
He said he has a number of ideas and plans in the works for his department and while some will be a continuation on the work done by Mr De Szell, others will be completely fresh.
“One of the priorities that we’re looking at is to do with development assessment and making sure we are user-friendly and that we have a real can-do approach.”
He said his team will also have a strong focus on managing Canberra growth into the Yass Valley and being careful with rural planning and subdivisions.
Mr Berry has also had his first experience at a Yass Valley Council meeting and he was impressed with what he saw.
“I don’t think there’s much that’s happened in a council meeting that I haven’t already seen and the meeting the other night was a good meeting, there was good debate and good discussion.”
Despite his love of cycling he’s yet to make the morning commute from Goulburn to Comur Street but he didn’t rule it out as a possible future endeavour.
“Look, I haven’t made that trip yet but hey if someone’s willing to sponsor me for a local charity perhaps I might do that, I think it would be a great ride.
“I’ve done the Goulburn to Camden ride which is 150 kilometres so I think the Goulburn to Yass ride is certainly not unachievable.”