Agenda and draft minutes

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This report sets out the management response to the findings of the recent Planning Peer Review.

The Committee received and considered a report that set out the management response to the finding of the Planning Improvement Peer Challenge undertaken by the Planning Advisory Service in September 2017.

The report identified areas of good practice but also set out the need for improvements in a number of areas. The primary issue to be addressed was the fact that the Council was under the threat of “designation” for poor performance in the quality of its decision-making on major applications.  The reason for this was that, over a two-year period, 4 out of 29 major planning applications had resulted in appeal decisions going against the Council.  Designation could result in the Council losing control of determination of major planning applications.  However, the scope of the Peer Challenge was much broader than this and the draft report identified a wide range of areas where it was considered there was scope for improvement.

The report highlighted that some of the actions within the Improvement Plan related to changes to policy and were within the purview of the Licensing and Planning Policy Committee.  The Peer Review Report and Improvement Plan would be reported to the next meeting of the Licensing and Planning Policy Committee for approval of the relevant actions.

In response to the first draft of the improvement plan, the Peer Review Team had agreed that it covered many of the key issues that the Council needed to address. However, the team had suggested that there were a number of other issues that were important to be considered as part of a revised improvement plan seeking to improve the quality of decision-making. It was the revised Improvement Plan before the Committee for consideration.

In discussing the Improvement Plan, the following points were noted:

·                 The Peer Review called for a review of existing call in and delegation procedures to support the strategic focus of the Planning Committee decision making and this would be the subject of a further report to the Committee;

·                 A recurring theme of the Peer Review, reflected in the Improvement Plan was the “front loading” of the development management process to involve members at an earlier stage, particularly in major applications as and when appropriate and members would be supported through this culture change;

·                 The Peer Review also identified that stronger ownership and management of the development management process was required to build greater trust and confidence among the Leadership Team and with Legal and Democratic Services;

·                 Members welcomed the emphasis on training in the Improvement Plan, particularly around policy changes and delivery to support them in their role;

·                 The Improvement Plan looked to support officers in their presentation skills in response to observations made in the Peer Review.  However, members ought not to be relying purely on the officer presentations as a source of information – plans and other supporting information was readily available on public access in advance of the meeting;

·                 Members did not accept the need to change the start time of Planning Committee meetings but  ...  view the full minutes text for item 41.