He used a private members speech to rubbish claims made by the Cessnock City Council that its turnaround time for development approvals was in line with other Hunter councils.

Mr Hickey said figures from the Department of Planning showed the council's planning department had the 20th highest staffing level in NSW but it finished at 115th in gross time taken for development application determinations.

"It [also] finishes third last for developments in the $1 million dollar to $5 million benchmark," he said.

Mr Hickey accused senior council staff of being selective in the information they used to defend the council's record.

He said staff and councillors had selected one statistic from 126 statistics on offer and had ignored the trend of 125 other statistics.

Cessnock council general Bernie Mortomore manager did not respond to the comments yesterday.

Mr Hickey said the council's claim it was on par with others in the region was in contrast to claims made by Hunter developer Hilton Grugeon.

In June, Mr Grugeon said he would direct investment away from Cessnock because its council was so slow compared with others in the Hunter Region.

The council and Mr Hickey have clashed publicly in recent months over the length of time the council takes to approve developments.