Agenda item

The Head of Planning informed Members that the Chief Executive had received a letter from the Department of Levelling Up, Housing and Communities which stated that the Authority would not now be going into special measures as they have recognised that improvements have been made in performance regarding non-major planning applications

Over the last ¾ up to the end of June, the Authority was showing that performance was over the 70% requirement and data up to the end of September was showing that over 80% of applications were now being dealt with within 8 weeks.  The Government looks at the data over a 2 year rolling period, so we still need to keep on monitoring the performance, but the trajectory was looking good which should  improve with the appointment of new staff and structures as part of the re-organisation.  It was also noted that the data on the number of applications approved was at 85% which showed we are positive in the vast majority of cases but we are always looking for solutions through the planning process.

Members conveyed their congratulations to Officers and all those involved in improving the position.  It was also noted that the 85% approval rate was something that we need to publicise a bit more to get the message out to the public that the majority of applications are dealt with positively, and those that aren’t were done for very good reasons.