Agenda item

Report to follow

J Doe introduced the report to members and ran through the key highlights:

• There has been a 100% success rate in appeals
• All major applications have been determined on time
• The validation of applications is still proving difficult. There is a backlog which has been exacerbated by staff sickness and complex cases. The department has received assistance from the performance team and the average wait time for validating applications is down to 7 days.
• There is an issue with recruitment and retention of staff especially in building control as the pay is better in the private sector.
• The missing measures on the performance report are the planning enforcement figures. These are: 100% for priority 1 cases, 83% for priority 2 cases and 96% on priority 3 cases.

Councillor Birnie highlighted that there had been a lot of resignations in the department and asked how many staff were left.

J Doe said that there was an admin team, three trainees and one agency staff member. The Team Leader left due to personal circumstances and the Assistant Team Leader moved to the private sector for better pay.

Councillor Birnie asked if bonuses had been addressed to retain staff.

J Doe said the council had previously paid market forces supplements but this was phased out due to budget pressures. Retention of staff is becoming a growing problem and currently, the council’s pay policy does not include market force supplements. The only current option is to use agency staff which are expensive. J Doe assured members that different options and interim management assistance are being explored.

Councillor Birnie referred to the 100% success rate in appeals.

J Doe said this indicator varies from quarter to quarter and shows that there is good decision making from both members and officers. It also shows that the council has good, robust planning policies.

Councillor Birnie said he was unsure on the call-in process if an application is in a different ward.

J Doe said ward councillors have a 28 day period from when an application has been validated to call it in and give valid reasons why. Senior officers also have the ability to refer an application to the Development Management Committee if there is deemed to be a high level of public interest. Also, any application that a Town or Parish Council does not agree with the recommendation, and then this is automatically referred to the committee.

Councillor Birnie referred to the recent application for a Mosque in Nash Mills and said he had received 97 emails from residents raising concerns. Would this constitute enough public interest to go to the committee?

J Doe said that unless it was subject to a member call-in then he would be referring it to the committee.

Councillor Anderson said this point flags up the importance of members taking the time to read the constitution.

Councillor Fisher said that recently, the Development Management Committee were faced with applications that had been approved but a second had been submitted with a greater number of dwellings on the sire. Is this an ongoing trend?

J Doe said it isn’t necessarily a trend but it is not uncommon. He highlighted that every application must be treated on its own merits.

Councillor Timmis said that information regarding the new local plan was difficult to find on the website.

J Doe said he was working closely with Communications to try and promote the consultation. He would take the point away and try and see if anything can be flagged on the council’s homepage.

Outcome

That the Strategic Planning and Environment Overview and Scrutiny Committee approve the report.