A council's power to prepare a draft LEP under s 54(5) of the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979 must be exercised in conformity with applicable s 117(2) Ministerial directions; preparation of a draft plan inconsistent with such a direction is beyond power. Non-compliance with s 117(3) alone does not invalidate the resulting LEP (applying Project Blue Sky), but failure to comply with the public exhibition requirements of s 66(1)(b) does lead to invalidity because those requirements are essential preliminaries to the exercise of the plan-making function. The Land and Environment Court decisions in Jessop, Asquith, Premier State Developments and Monaro Acclimatisation Society should not be followed insofar as they hold that failure to exhibit s 117 directions does not invalidate the resulting plan.
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