Agenda item

To consider the head of planning’s report. 

The committee considered the head of planning’s report, which reviewed performance of the planning enforcement service from 1 April 2018 to 30 September 2019.  The report set out the role of the service, the legal requirements, and the relevant local plan policies. 

The report also set out the limitations of the service.  The focus was on remedying planning harm, but not to ‘police’ the district or punish those that had followed the rules.  Other than unauthorised works to listed buildings, protected trees and the unauthorised display of advertisements, breaches of planning control were not criminal acts.  The service provided by the council was set out in the planning enforcement statement, which was published on the council’s website.  This explained how the council monitored implementation of planning conditions and how the council investigated unauthorised development.  The statement was being reviewed to update it in line with the latest guidance. 

The report also set out the enforcement workload, analysed the unresolved cases, and showed performance against the council’s targets.  The committee noted that the service had just missed the target to investigate and determine the cause of 80 per cent of cases within six weeks of the original enquiry: 75 per cent had been achieved.  However, the increase in voluntary compliance was over twice the target as more people were engaging with the planning system. 

The team aimed to get the public to engage rather than to impose immediate penalties.  On larger sites, officers would attempt to be proactive by monitoring development as it happened to pick up issues in a timely manner.  The enforcement team had taken formal action where necessary and had defended successfully its decisions at appeal.  Officers gave examples of their more complex cases. 

The Leader of the Council, Councillor Emily Smith, attended the meeting on behalf of the Cabinet member for planning.  The leader asked the committee for its comments on the report and for any suggestions on how the team should prioritise its work in the future. 

The committee noted that ability to improve performance was restricted by resourcing difficulties.  However, performance compared favourably against benchmark councils.  Although the South and Vale team was larger than average when fully staffed, it had a larger number of planning applications to monitor and more strategic housing sites than other benchmark authorities.  

One area that the committee suggested required attention was construction traffic management plans agreed as part of a planning permission.  Officers recognised the problems with traffic management routing, the enforcement of which was partly the Vale’s responsibility and partly the county council’s responsibility as highway authority.  Councillors noted that the officers were in ongoing dialogue with the county council to improve these and make the plans more meaningful. 

South Oxfordshire’s Scrutiny Committee had suggested that a councillors’ round table session should be held to revise the joint planning enforcement statement.  This committee agreed, supporting a joint round table session with South’s councillors.  This would help define where resources were currently targeted and also help determine which issues the planning enforcement team should prioritise in future. 

The committee also considered that the council should do more to promote its planning portal and online guide planning enforcement.  This could coincide with the publicity for the revised enforcement statement. 

RESOLVED: to

(a)      note the head of planning’s report and thank the planning enforcement team for its work over the past 18 months;

(b)      recommend that the Cabinet member for planning organises a joint South and Vale councillors’ round table session to help revise the planning enforcement statement; and

(c)       recommend that the Cabinet member publicises the council’s online planning enforcement portal following the councils’ adoption of the revised planning enforcement statement.