Agenda item

Members will receive an update on progress and performance in Planning Enforcement following a service restructure earlier in the year.  Planning enforcement issues can negatively impact our residents and members are keen to understand the impact of the Local Enforcement and Monitoring Plan (LEMP) which was adopted in June 2020.

Contributors:

Cllr Gareth Williams, Cabinet Member for Planning and Regeneration

Ian Thompson, Corporate Director, Planning, Growth and Sustainability

Darran Eggleton, Head of Planning Policy and Compliance

The Chairman welcomed Cllr Gary Hall, Deputy Cabinet Member for Planning Enforcement to the meeting, who joined Cllr Gareth Williams and the Officer team.  Cllr Gary Hall introduced the report, reminding members that planning enforcement was a priority but if a breach was reported, the team would work with individuals to bring their development back into line with planning rules, before looking to take more formal action.  Cllr Hall paid tribute to the staff and reminded members that whilst planning could be an emotive subject, officers should be treated with courtesy and respect.

Darran Eggleton, Head of Planning Policy and Compliance, highlighted the following main points from the report:

• Buckinghamshire Council took a firm but fair approach to planning enforcement and formal action would be taken as needed.
• The Planning Enforcement management team had been restructured with two Area Team Leaders reporting into the Enforcement Manager. The two teams were aligned with North and Central Planning areas and East/South and West planning areas.
• The teams were working through a backlog of cases, using a proactive risk- based approach which enabled decisions to be taken as early as possible in the process. This was leading to an increase in performance, with an increased number of notices issued and a high success rate at appeal stage which demonstrated that staff were making sound judgements.

In response to members’ questions and during the subsequent discussions the following main points were noted:

• It was noted that 805 cases had been closed and only 24 formal actions taken. Darran Eggleton explained that cases were not closed unless permission has been sought and obtained or if it was judged not to be expedient to pursue the issue.  The closure rate was monitored and usually ran at 20%, due to issues being resolved or being found not be in breach of planning rules.
• In response to a question regarding the caseload per officer, average length of time to resolve a case and how Buckinghamshire Council compared to others, it was agreed that more detailed KPIs would be shared with the committee. It was noted that Government collated national statistics in terms of the number of enforcement notices issued and BC were ranked 11^th last year or 5^th outside of Greater London. ACTION: Darran Eggleton
• A member briefing session on enforcement was planned for the new year as well as some training aimed at town and parish councils.
• Anyone could report a planning breach via the planning portal. The team had 1556 open cases currently.
• A member complimented the team on dealing with a planning breach she reported and resolving the issue within 3 weeks.
• A member questioned why only 24 formal notices had been issued when reporting of issues was much higher.  It was noted that last year the Council issued 59 notices in comparison with 100 for the highest issuing local authority. 
• The enforcement team was made up of 17 full time equivalents although there were currently 3 vacancies, which were being covered by agency staff. A further 5 officers had been requested in the current budget round.
• A member commented that he was appalled to hear about unacceptable behaviour from members towards officers. He expressed the view that members should never raise their voices with officers and suggested that improved understanding of the process might encourage members to moderate this behaviour.

The Chairman thanked Cllr Gary Hall and Darran Eggleton for their report and was pleased to see that improvements were being made in this area.