Agenda item

The Planning Portfolio Holder, Head of Development Management and Joint Director of Planning and Economic Development, presented an update on performance and service improvement within the Development Management Service. The Joint Director of Planning and Economic Development, commended the work of the Development Management Team in improving performance.

Points of discussion and clarification regarding the update were:

·         It was clarified that of 220 planning appeals received, 15 related to non determination appeals and two were from the backlog.

·         Following queries raised at the previous meeting, it was confirmed that notifications of major applications were being provided. Members were informed that options for providing electronic notifications were being explored, to enable more prompt notification.

·         The actual figures in table 2 of Appendix 1 of the report, as well as the percentages, were requested for the next update report.

·         Alongside table 1 of Appendix 1, which outlined the national targets, members requested a table outlining what was being achieved against these targets. It was confirmed that 60% was a national target and that if performance fell below 50%, designation would occur.

·         Members were informed that the implications of designation were not yet known, as designation measures had only been consulted on by the Government and a designation process had not yet been developed.

·         Members requested that the number of planning appeals in which costs were awarded against the council, be included in the report.

·         The target date of the end of October 2016 to clear the backlog was queried, as the rate of clearing the backlog had been steadily declining. The Planning Portfolio Holder confirmed that the backlog was progressing faster than it had been as more staff had been recruited. The Head of Development Management was confident that the backlog would be cleared by the end of October to the middle of November 2016. Projections for this were being reviewed on a weekly basis.

·         The Joint Director of Planning and Economic Development advised that more detailed reporting on the backlog would be included in the report to the committee in November 2016.

·         The committee was informed of some development agencies taking advantage of the lack of a five year land supply, and the actions being taken by the Council to address this.

·         The Planning Portfolio Holder emphasised that the National Planning Policy Framework stipulated that development should be in sustainable locations and the Council followed this policy. It was also emphasised that every planning application was judged on its own merit.

·         It was clarified that the 13 week timescale for major planning applications, started once an application had been received and was valid.

·         Members raised concern that documentation for old planning applications was not available on the planning portal. The Joint Director of Planning and Economic Development would look into this outside the meeting. Councillors Hart and Bradnam would liaise with The Joint Director of Planning and Economic Development regarding this.

The committee NOTED the update and AGREED that a further update report would be scheduled for the committee’s meeting in November 2016.