Former senior planner Beth Morgan brought the city's name into disrepute with her sex-and-development approach. And the corruption scandal gave the outside world the impression that if you wanted a quickie approval then Wollongong was up for it.

Since then, administrators have been steering the ship. New processes, better governance, greater transparency. But new statistics reveal Wollongong has one of the worst turnarounds in processing DAs - blown out to an average of 111 days.

Part of the problem may be due to a council staff restructure, which has affected resources.

Whatever the cause, this bad set of numbers will give some in the developers' ranks cause to gripe that the pendulum has swung viciously away from giving them a fair go.

And another thing...

No sporting team in recent times has managed to galvanise the people of the Illawarra like the Wollongong Hawks, who tonight take on Townsville in the NBL semi-finals.

The Hawks know they have our support - but they should also know that however they fare during the finals they have exceeded expectations. What fantastic ambassadors they are for their city and their sport.