Planning Minister John Rau looks to remove councillors from local government planning assessment Picture: St Andrew's Hospital. A LEGAL stoush over a South Tce development has sparked a war of words between City councillors and the State Government over whether councillors should be forbidden from planning assessment. Planning Minister John Rau said his expert panel reviewing the state's planning system would look at removing councillors from local assessment bodies. But two councillors involved in the stoush have hit back, accusing Mr Rau of a "development at any cost" attitude which has "paralysed" city planning. Mr Rau announced the move after the City Messenger revealed developer James Arsenikakis was threatening legal action because the City development assessment panel knocked back his bid to add a fourth level to a new St Andrew's Hospital building . Mr Rau said "political sensitivities" sometimes hampered councillors' judgement. He raised the issue with the Local Government Association based on problems with other council panels before hearing of the South Tce development. "It is difficult for elected members to remove their local political sensitivities when assessing any project against their council's Development Plan," Mr Rau said. That is a difficult ask and that leads to decisions that can be seen as strange. Mr Arsenikakis was represented at the panel last week by Brian Hayes QC, who by coincidence is spearheading Mr Rau's statewide planning review. The builder has alleged councillors Anne Moran and Michael Henningsen should have excused themselves last week because Cr Henningsen is a surgeon who does some of his work at St Andrew's, as does Cr Moran's anaesthetist husband. Both have rejected the allegations and taken aim at Mr Rau. " (Mr Rau's) push to have development at any cost has inadvertently paralysed development in the city because he has destroyed the land economy and in Adelaide now there are no developers, just speculators," Cr Henningsen said. His mindless push conveniently neglects to mention the fact that more independent members of the DAP voted against the (South Tce) proposal than did councillors. The City panel has four councillors and five independent members. Cr Moran said it was vital to retain a "democratic element" so the public could hold councillors to account if rulings did not adhere to local Development Plans. "In this case we complied with the plan to the letter," she said. If (Mr Rau's) not happy with the plan, change the plan, not the assessors. The implication is councillors have voted politically because they haven't been able to take our council hat off. In 18 years I haven't seen that happen. LGA president David O'Loughlin said the state planning review should consider "all options" for council panels, including having them comprised entirely of councillors. He said a key issue was speeding up the process of changing Development Plans so they reflected community wishes. Mr Rau said in hindsight he should have taken control of the whole city when he introduced sweeping changes to planning rules last year. The changes lifted height restrictions for most of the CBD but has left the government and council wrangling over southern residential areas, including South Tce.