Issue - meetings

Issue - meetings

Planning Enforcement Task Force Update

Meeting: 15/03/2018 - SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITIES OVERVIEW & SCRUTINY COMMITTEE (Item 72)

72 Planning Enforcement Task Force Update pdf icon PDF 51 KB

 

To receive a report updating the Committee on progress made in relation to improvements to the Planning Enforcement service, as requested at a previous meeting.

 

Additional documents:

Minutes:

 

The Head of Client and Development Services delivered a report which set out progress to date on recommendations to improve the Planning Enforcement service. Members were advised that a new officer had been appointed to oversee the service and that the team were working closely with planning colleagues in order that any conditions applied to a site or development could be realistically enforced.

 

In light of the report Members discussed the following in summary:-

·           That a lack of funding for additional officers within the service was not a concern as the original recommendations had been based on a cost neutral approach.

·           That any minor amendments to the Planning Enforcement Plan would not need to go back to the Executive for approval, instead they should be actioned by senior officers within the team.

·           That the Committee was broadly satisfied with the Member protocol however Members agreed that a simplified version of the Planning Enforcement Plan be included within the document, along with relevant timescales for action and the different categories assigned to enforcement cases.

·           That statistics within the Planning Enforcement Plan should highlight figures for a typical year rather than specifics which would soon be out of date.

·           That timescales with regards to retrospective planning applications be revisited, taking into account the complexities once the planning application process had begun and taking each application on its merits.

·           That problems regarding technology and the reporting of enforcement issues be investigated by officers.

·           That without monitoring officers it was difficult to monitor conditions applied to planning applications, however it was acknowledged that the team were broadly successful in being as proactive as possible with the staff resourcing available to them.

·           That the addition of resource for an out of hours service could not be justified due to current levels of demand, instead emergency response teams dealt with issues as they arose.

 

RECOMMENDED:-

1.     That the next iteration of the Planning Enforcement Plan be delivered at a future meeting.

2.     That an annual performance report on the Planning Enforcement Service be delivered to the Committee.

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