Agenda item

To consider the Review of the Planning Service report.

Cabinet is RESOLVED to:

Councillor Evans presented the Review of the Planning Service report, which outlined details relating to the peer review undertaken by the East of England Local Government Association (EELGA) and addressed how to improve the Council’s development management service. The report contained eight recommendations for implementation to improve the service. He said he had accepted Scrutiny Committee’s request to come back in 6 months’ time to provide an update on progress, and to also produce an implementation plan in readiness for the meeting in November. A number of actions had already been completed, or were near completion, including:

• The appointment of a Planning Transformation Lead.
• The imminent appointment of an Interim Director of Planning.
• Legal and senior planning posts had been created to assist the service.
• A new and improved Planning Committee report template and format would be introduced imminently.
• A Planning Committee member training programme was in development.
• The call-in procedure had been identified as an area in need of revision.

He said measures contained in the peer review were budgeted for and would be implemented as soon as possible. He proposed the recommendation set out in the report.

The Leader said planning had been identified as an area for improvement in the early days of the Administration; he thanked the interim and newly appointed Chief Executive for the speed at which they had moved this review forward.

Councillor Caton welcomed the recommendations in the report. He expressed disappointment that the 2018 peer review report had not been acted upon at the time. Furthermore, he said planning performance management issues should have been brought to Planning Committee in the past, and that opposition leaders should be kept informed of developments relating to the planning transformation project. He wished the Administration well with implementation of the recommendations and said he would remain a “critical friend”.  

The Leader agreed with Councillor Caton’s comments on the 2018 report. He said Councillor Caton was welcome to attend regular Group Leaders’ meetings for routine briefings.

Councillor Hargreaves said performance reports would nominally be considered by the Governance, Audit and Performance Committee.

The Chief Executive said planning performance indicators would be refined and revised in light of the report and the letter from the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities setting out that the Council was failing in terms of the proportion of major planning applications overturned at appeal. He said the responsibility to improve the service would be a shared endeavour between the Executive, Planning Committee, officers and all members. There was a need to work together to get this process right.

Councillor Lees read out a statement on behalf of Councillor Pepper, who was not present, which said the planning service had dealt with some major issues in the past two years and it had been challenging for all involved. Furthermore, she highlighted the environmental reasons why unsustainable planning applications should be refused and said the Government’s Planning White Paper and housing algorithm should be reviewed. She was confident that the right personnel were in place to produce a sound Local Plan.  

Councillor Day said the Administration made decisions based on the evidence before them; this detailed report provided such evidence and the situation would now be put right.

Councillor Freeman said controls needed to be put in place whereby planning committee members were warned when the number of applications being determined against officer recommendation was at such a high level that the Government would intervene. He said the late Councillor Storah had been extremely effective at defending such applications but the Council now needed an automated system to caution councillors when in danger of passing this threshold.

            RESOLVED to:

1. receive and consider the report, together with any comments or recommendations from the Scrutiny Committee;
2. note the improvement actions implemented to date;
3. approve the recommendations of the report, as amended if agreed under (a) above, for implementation towards an improved planning management service;
4. acknowledge the recommendations directed to the Cabinet and its Executive Members and requests the Chief Executive and the Leader to bring forward proposals to address these recommendations;
5. consider any consequential resource implications as part of consideration of the Council budget for 2022-23;
6. require a progress report to Cabinet on implementation of the recommendations no later than six months from this meeting; and

refer the report to the Planning Committee for its information and consideration. 

The meeting was closed at 8.10pm.