Agenda item

The Lead Cabinet Member for Planning presented the report which provided the Scrutiny and Overview Committee with an update on the delivery of the Shared Planning Service. She highlighted the following to the committee:

·         Weekly planning reports were provided to parishes and members.

·         A new online customer feedback questionnaire had been created.

·         A new onboarding process for new staff had been introduced

·         A new single customer complaints process had been developed for Cambridge City and South Cambridgeshire.

·         A new and improved pre-application service had been launched. It was hoped that more applicants would use this service, and that applications would subsequently move through the system more easily.

·         A 24 hour call back service had been introduced for officers to respond to those who had requested updates.

·         A standard planning performance agreement had been introduced.

·         More member development had been introduced, with bitesize training sessions taking place before Planning Committee meetings started.

·         Work was ongoing on a suite of planning conditions.

·         The Planning Advisory Service review had taken place. This had reviewed the Cambridge City and South Cambridgeshire Planning Committees. The report would be published in early 2021.

The Assistant Director (Delivery) informed the committee of the following:

·         The major work in merging the two planning services was complete. Work was ongoing on aligning the processes of the services.

·         The ICT upgrade had taken place with the migration to a new system and new server, creating a more robust system. This had taken significant officer time and high volumes of testing work had been carried out

·         The reduction in the number of complaints regarding the service compared to the previous year was highlighted.

·         S106 agreements had been completed for the Wellcome Trust and Land North of Cherry Hinton planning applications.

·         The work of team leaders to improve relationships with parishes was highlighted. There would be a programme of quarterly parish meetings.

·         Work would be carried out in relation to the reliance on extensions of time. The committee was informed that these were used extensively across the country and South Cambridgeshire District Council was consistent with many other local authorities in this regard.

·         The committee was informed that it would be difficult to provide data regarding who had requested extensions of time. The committee was informed that in most cases, the applicant sought an extension of time to amend their application.

·         A single tree application process would be developed.

·         There was further work to to be done on making the application processes as efficient as possible.

·         The way in which appeals were processed would be reviewed.

·         The number of Terraquest staff had been reduced from six in total in Development Management and validation to one full time member of staff working on the processing of applications in Development Management.

·         The committee was informed that many requests from parish councils to refer applications to the Planning Committee were declined. 22% of applications were being referred to the committee and this matter was being kept under review. This would need to be looked at through the implementation of the recommendations from the Planning Advisory Service.

·         In recent months, 100% of business applications had been approved and 80% of household applications. These approvals would often not be possible without the amendment of applications. 

Committee members informed the Lead Cabinet Member and officers that they had received complaints from parish councils which had been unable to access documents on the online planning portal when they had needed to. It was queried whether the availability of the website was being tracked. Members were informed by officers that when the site was undergoing maintenance, notification was put on the Council’s website. Members requested that advance notice of scheduled website maintenance be provided to parish councils.

Committee members acknowledged the work of the Planning team on Northstowe, however were concerned at losing another member of staff from this team and the lack of continuity this would result in. Members queried whether major strategic sites could be a priority for permanent staffing. In response to this, the Lead Cabinet Member for Planning informed the committee that staffing was an issue across the country. The service used contract staff rather than leaving posts vacant and would continue to look for permanent staff. The committee was informed that there were several vacancies on the Strategic Sites Team.

Vacancies in the Technical Support Team were queried. The Assistant Director (Delivery) informed the committee that the vacant posts were fixed term posts which expired in March 2021 and had been filled by agency staff. All permanent posts in the team were filled.

Some committee members informed officers and the Lead Cabinet Member that parish councils were grateful for the weekly planning updates.

The Assistant Director (Delivery) informed the committee that the council’s use of extensions of time was not unusual compared to other local planning authorities. He informed the committee that there was a difference between major and minor applications in this regard. For major applications there was a large use of extensions of time whereas with minors, the use of extensions of time was more variable. The service had made efforts with local agents to try and reduce the use of extensions of time, however the service had seen an increase in their use over the last 12 months. The service had been challenged on its approach to the use of extensions of time. The Joint Director suggested bringing a report regarding this specific issue, to a future Scrutiny and Overview Committee meeting.

The Joint Director of Planning and Economic Development informed the committee that a new process for exit interviews had been put in place with a designated officer within the service carrying out all exit interviews for all permanent and agency staff. This provided consistency in the way these interviews were carried out.

The Joint Director informed the committee that there had been a reduction in the number of major planning applications during the Covid-19 pandemic, however numbers had since increased, notably for household applications. In general these application numbers had gone back to pre-Covid levels and officer workload remained high.

Committee members noted the improvement in the service’s performance. The Lead Cabinet Member for Planning informed the committee that the service was being measured against national targets and would continue to do so.

The Scrutiny and Overview Committee:

a)    Noted the report.

b)    Supported the establishment of a joint member/officer Planning Improvement Group.

Councillors Richard Williams, Anna Bradnam and Grenville Chamberlain were nominated as members of the Planning Improvement Group which would be chaired by the Head of Transformation.