Issue - meetings

Planning Enforcement

Meeting: 19/09/2024 - Planning Policy Committee (Item 105)

105 Planning Enforcement pdf icon PDF 67 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

In June 2024, the Committee had adopted an amended Enforcement Policy. A report setting out the work that had been undertaken since that meeting to strengthen and improve the effectiveness of the Enforcement Team to deliver on the policy. This included:

 

i)              Recruitment of permanent Enforcement Officers.

ii)             Improvements to caseload and data management.

iii)           Development of an ‘Out of Hours’ solution.

iv)           Improvements in communication and stakeholder management.

 

The Council had commissioned external companies to strengthen the Council’s enforcement by tackling priority enforcement cases and provide on-site attendance outside normal working hours. The external support would help the Council to determine the future operating model of enforcement services and ensure it is on a stable basis by the end of 2024/25.

 

In response to Member questions, Officers explained:

 

·         a budget of £50k had been initially agreed to commission external support in tackling priority cases. It was not known the length of time the trial would last.

 

·         the success of the trial would be determined by how well the external organisations support the service, as well as determining value for money.

 

·         15 of the highest priority 40 cases had been allocated to the external organisations. Officers would be able to share these with the Committee, as well as data on the oldest and the median. If Members wanted updates on particular cases, they could contact the Interim DM Manager.

 

·         the external organisations would be reporting back fortnightly from the end of September.

 

·         improved communications between Officers and Members would be a measure of success in the improvement plan.

 

·         enforcement tended to be a long process due to the steps that needed to be gone through. Information from the Planning Inspectorate suggested it took around a year to deal with enforcement appeals. If the appeal is dismissed, there was then the compliance period which could be up to a further year.

 

R E S O L V E D – that the updates to the Planning Enforcement Team be noted and the decision taken under urgency powers be ratified.