Agenda item

Context:

To provide report on the performance of the Planning service for the period 2015-16.

The Planning Committee was invited to attend the meeting alongside the Select Committee to scrutinise the report.

Key Issues:

The planning service’s work links directly with Monmouthshire County Council’s objective of delivering sustainable, resilient communities.  The service is directly involved with wider corporate projects such as 21^st Century Schools, rationalising our estates portfolio and forms an integral part of the emerging work on Future Monmouthshire.

Key areas of work for the Planning Service include:

•           Providing pre-application advice to customers.

•          Determining planning applications in accordance with adopted policy and material planning considerations, taking into account stakeholder comments and corporate objectives.

•          Securing financial contributions from developers to offset the infrastructure demands of new development and meet the need for affordable housing.

•          Safeguarding the County’s 2400 Listed Buildings and 31 Conservation Areas, areas of archaeological sensitivity, the Wye Valley AONB, the Brecon Beacons National Park and the European designated Special Protection Areas and Special Areas of Conservation.

•          Taking robust enforcement action against unauthorised development that is unacceptable.

•          Raising awareness of the statutory role and importance of the land use planning framework, building on the high levels of engagement underpinning the Local Development Plan (LDP) process.

•          Preparing supplementary planning guidance (SPG) to assist with the implementation and interpretation of LDP policy.

•          Implementing the Council’s LDP through engaging and working with communities, and partnership working with internal and external partners to foster the co-creation and growth of enterprise, community and environmental well-being.  This will include involvement with the Whole Place work and Local Well-being Plan.

•          Monitoring and evaluating Plan policies and the process of Plan preparation.

Customer service feedback

Between 2010 and 2012 the Council’s planning service underwent a Systems Thinking review.  This review sought to strip the function back to first principles: what is important to our customers, and how can waste (actions or procedures that do not add value to the outcome) be eliminated.  This evidence-based review has been fully implemented, although part of the Systems Thinking approach requires services to be kept under review and closely monitored.

This review identified that the following things are important to customers:

•          Customers value pre-application advice and advice during the consideration of the application.

•          They want officers to be accessible and for there to be open and honest communication.

•          They want consistency of pre-application advice and in validation of applications.

•          They want Planning Committee to follow the officer’s recommendation and value being able to have a dialogue with Members prior to determination.

•          They don’t want too many conditions being attached to decisions, and when conditions are imposed they should be relevant and easy to discharge.

•              They value being able to submit an application online and to search for applications and information online.

•           Third parties value being listened to during the application process.

The service therefore operates with these priorities as guiding principles, shaping behaviour and procedures.  The service is committed to having an outcome focus rather than chasing arbitrary performance targets that are not a priority to the Department’s customers.

Member scrutiny:

The following points were noted:

·         An additional performance indicator could be added to the report, namely, the percentage of applications which are delegated to officers for decision.  The Head of Planning, Housing and Place-Shaping informed the Committee that he would provide Members with details of this information.

·         In response to a Select Committee Member’s question, the Head of Planning, Housing and Place-Shaping valued the Planning Committee as being a ‘critical friend’ with officers having a good working relationship with that committee.

·         All Planning Committee Members receive compulsory training before they serve on the committee, as stated in the Members’ Code of Conduct.  The annual design tour is held whereby, the Planning Committee, with officers, visits completed developments where the planning applications have been approved by the Committee. The Committee can also learn from appeal decisions.