Issue - meetings

That the revised Planning Enforcement Policy be approved for consultation subject to Cabinet taking consideration of the comments made by the Committee.

Councillor Chris Bithell introduced the report to seek approval of the draft Planning Enforcement Policy for consultation before formal adoption and to share details of the future approach to the enforcement function.  The proposed changes would help to improve communications and accessibility to achieve a more effective planning enforcement system.

The Chief Officer (Planning & Environment) explained that the policy review had been co-ordinated with the proposed restructure of the Development Management team and was informed by changes in legislation and the outcomes of a recent Internal Audit report into the enforcement function.  The main changes to the policy were summarised by the Development Manager who also explained that the restructure would enable resources to be used in a different way.

In response to a question from Councillor Owen Thomas, the Development Manager referred to the challenges of retrospective planning applications but advised that the proposed restructure would strengthen action tracking on such applications and timescales outside which any development would become exempt from potential enforcement action.

Councillor Paul Shotton spoke in support of the recommendations and asked about the implementation date.  It was explained that most actions were taking place in the current month, with the restructure consultation period already underway, whilst others such as changes to IT software would take more time to complete.

Councillor David Evans asked that the policy include provision for the case officer to discuss with the local Member their decision on enforcement action and for this information to be made available.  The importance of engaging with local Members was acknowledged by officers who said that expediency reports, containing details of enforcement decisions, may in future become publicly accessible.  On the issue of anonymity of complainants, careful consideration would need to be given should the register of enforcement complaints become available on the website.  The impact of any long-term absences on officer caseloads would be minimised by the restructure and casework approach with enforcement knowledge extended across the whole team.  Timescales for site visits to unauthorised gypsy/traveller encampments (as referred to within the policy) would be revised where the Council was the landowner. It was acknowledged that where the encampment was on Council land, the quickest form of action would be through our role as landowner, rather than through planning enforcement.

Following a comment by Councillor Cindy Hinds, it was explained that the proposed changes would help to improve the recording and tracking of complaints to ensure that the complainant received a written response with the local Member copied in.

In response to Councillor Veronica Gay, the Development Manager agreed to clarify ‘written complaints’ within the policy and to include stronger signposting to relevant departments outside Planning, for example Housing or Highways.  She also provided details of the new IT software which interacted with calendar scheduling to automatically record any escalated timescales.

Councillor Owen Thomas referred to the number of cases where enforcement action could not be taken due to the time limit being exceeded.  It was noted that the new arrangements would improve transparency  ...  view the full minutes text for item 23