At the time of release 696 DAs were waiting to be processed.

The Department of Planning released the information in a report titled Local Development Performance Monitoring for 2006/2007.

Only 29 councils take longer than 100 days to process an application.

Great Lakes Council is 17th.

Councils have 40 days to process a DA before the applicant has the right of appeal to the Land and Environment Court.

Figures show Great Lakes Council is taking on average 111 days to process a DA with a section 96 application.

This is an increase of 10 days since the previous report.

The report also shows it takes 141 days for Great Lakes Council to process a DA for a commercial, retail or office block to be approved; putting council in the top 10.

“I don’t believe this is a true representation of the time it takes to process DAs,” acting director of planning and environment Wayne Burgess said.

He said council doesn't have the ability to stop the clock when more information is requested from the applicant and this increases the times it takes to process the DA.

Most councils around the state have electronic stop the clock provisions.

Great Lakes Council hopes it will have this provision in force in the next few months which will shorten the time it takes for DAs to be processed.