Agenda item

To consider the Planning Review Progress Report.

The Chair said that this report was an update following the review of the planning function, the subsequent appointment of two interim senior managers and the detailed recommendations provided by this Committee through Councillors Jones and Criscione. 

Councillor Evans presented the report which had been drafted by the Planning Transformation Lead.  He said there were 85 tasks and actions in total shown using a traffic light system: -

·         35 tasks were at green and had been completed.

·         10 were red but these were wish list items.

·         The remaining 40 tasks were amber and were being worked on. 

He said progress was good and there would be a more comprehensive report in March.

The Interim Planning Director said this review was on track to be completed by the end of March, but she said it was an ongoing process that was dependent on other factors. 

She said that there was a national issue around the recruitment of planning staff at a senior level and this would need to be considered in the long-term using other ways to train younger staff members to a senior level through graduate schemes and apprenticeships.   

She said that once there was a Local Plan in place, the Council would be in a much stronger position and Officers would be able to provide more guidance and support to the Planning Committee when making decisions on applications before them. 

She said that the Local Plan was vital as the initial step to ensure that decisions were made more quickly as they would be based on the adopted policies.  She said once this was in place all other supplementary planning documents could then be implemented.

She said the next 18 months would ensure that the Development Management function was structured in a streamlined way in order to provide a better service when the Local Plan was put in place.   A Project Officer had been appointed to check that the commitments in the Planning Performance Agreements (PPA’s) were met.

In response to Members questions the following responses were given: -

Councillor Evans said that there were challenges to recruit within the planning function but the closing date for applications to appoint the Director of Planning had not yet been reached, (the closing date for applications was 16^th February 2022), and therefore he could not comment on what response had been received. 

He said that the improvement of the service for residents and Members could not be quantified by one item or be given a specific date for completion, but he said that by the summer there would be significant changes and improvements.   

The Chief Executive said that where planning staff would be based was part of a bigger issue of getting staff back into the buildings.  He said that there would be drop in facilities for members of the public and the working pattern of all staff would be based on the business need as well as individual preferences.  He said that he hoped this would be clearer by April when the Government legislation came to an end. 

There was discussion by Members regarding the difficulties of getting hold of the Planning department and particularly enforcement by phone or e-mail.  Members said that there needed to be a much better system of reply.  There was a training need for young apprentices and planners if they were mainly based at home to fill the gap that working alongside someone and learning from them would create.

Councillor Evans said that the red items were not lower priority and were essential as part of the process.  He said the report explained the significance of the Infrastructure Funding Statement, the first of which had been recently published on the website.  He said that there was some funding in the budget for next year which would ensure that the technical work could be completed. 

He said that PPAs had historically been created on an ad hoc basis but there were plans to standardise these so that they were Uttlesford District Council documents in terms of style and stated requirements.  This meant that applicants and developers would be asked to agree to the Council’s terms and conditions. 

The Planning Transformation Lead said that the new Project Officer was in place and was looking at the PPA’s, focusing on best practice guidance and making the documents simple and straight forward.  She said the current PPA’s could be serviced but in the future resources would be considered for every PPA.   

Councillor Evans said that incentives for developers to apply for a full application rather than outline followed by a full application would be looked at.

The Chair said that the Committee noted that there were clear plans in place with the focus on implementation and a strong team.  He said that the concerns raised regarding service levels would be taken on board by the Chief Executive and he suggested that the report be remitted to Cabinet and revisited at the September meeting for a full update.

AGREED: That the report be remitted to Cabinet.