Issue - meetings

A report was presented regarding the findings of separate reviews undertaken by Gillian Macinnes of the Planning Advisory Service (PAS) concerning the Council’s Development Management function and the Planning Committee. The report outlined the recommendations arising from both reviews and confirmed that a business case to support service improvements was being developed, based on the following four workstreams:

·           structure

·           resource

·           systems and processes

·           Member/Officer relations (to consider the PAS recommendations from the planning review)

Members were advised about temporary additional staffing resources which, in the meantime, had been put in place to deal with the current backlog of planning applications and to maintain services levels. 

Gillian Macinnes addressed the Committee to explain the context of the reviews. She remained in the meeting to respond to Members’ questions.  

During the debate, Members highlighted the need for: 

·           Councillors to see the change programme and associated timelines and resourcing requirements;

·           planning staff to be involved in the programme;

·           IT issues to be addressed, including restoration of the e-mail notification system (this would be a high priority aspect of the first phase of the change programme);

·           a peer review process to establish the case for permanent additional staffing resources for the development management function;

·           restoration of a pre-application advice service; and

·           the role of non-Committee members at Planning Committee meetings to be clarified.

The adequacy of the current Councillor call-in process for planning applications was discussed, together with the merits of establishing a forum where planning officers could brief Members about current applications and respond to questions.

The Committee thanked Gillian Macinnes for conducting the reviews and her subsequent reports and recommendations.

            R E S O L V E D – that the update on the implementation of the findings from        the Planning Advisory Service reviews be noted.