Agenda and draft minutes

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The Chair referred to the notice of filming at meetings and this information was noted.

To receive any apologies for absence.

Apologies were received from Councillor Ibrahim and Councillor Jameson.

The Chair will consider the admission of any late items of urgent business.  (Late items will be considered under the agenda item where they appear. New items will be dealt with under item 8 below).

There were no items of urgent business.

There were no declarations of interest.

To consider any requests received in accordance with Part 4, Section B, paragraph 29 of the Council’s constitution

There were no deputations/ petitions/ presentations/ questions.

To confirm and sign the minutes of the Strategic Planning Committee meeting held on 20^th June as a correct record.

RESOLVED

To confirm and sign the minutes of the Strategic Planning Committee held on 20^th June a correct record.

A report on the work of the Planning and Building Control services to September/October 2023.

The Assistant Director for Planning, Building Standards and Sustainability introduced the report which provided an update on the work of the Planning and Building Control services for Quarter 1 to 2 which covered the period of September/October 2023.

Planning Cross Cutting Matters –

 In response to questions from the Committee, it was noted:

• It was noted by members that the ‘Pathways to Planning’ graduate scheme was a positive step forward. If successful it was intended to lead to further careers in planning and architecture. Members looked forward to meeting the upcoming graduates on the scheme.
• It was noted that the Council’s action plan to help promote Diversity and Inclusion was launched. Subsequently officers within the planning, building and sustainability team are working on an action plan to encourage equality diversity and inclusion, including within recruitment. This was led by a staff group of volunteers. This group would be working to come up with actions on a more local level. Officers would update the Committee on this in due course.
• In relation to dealing with the backlog of applications. It was noted that the new Government scheme, Planning Skills Delivery Fund allowed planning teams to bid up to £100,000. It was noted that the fund could be used to help deal with any backlog via routes such as managed overtime or recruitment of additional staff.
• It was noted that the update on increased planning fees, had passed through parliament. This update allowed a 25% increase on smaller applications fees and 35% on major applications fees. That was the government's long-term approach and that would be index linked in line with inflation.

Development Management and Enforcement –

The Head of Development Management and Planning Enforcement introduced this section of the report.

In response to questions from the Committee, it was noted:

• That the caseload increase was an issue but that had now levelled off. A decrease in the number of open cases was expected as the team was well resourced to deal with the cases. In terms of the PPA and outstanding money, this referred to the money that had been agreed to be paid but had not been paid yet. This was often set on milestones; officers would not record debt that they were owed in that figure. With fast track and priority applications, the additional income allowed the team to keep staffing levels and resource high. Officers were allocated work knowing they would have to prioritise the case.
• In terms of tackling back-log August was a quiet period, this was used as a 4-week block to tackle outstanding cases. A lot of applications are reliant on detailed discussions with consultees, on all those fronts there had been an increase in resource. It was noted that applications tend to increase around the Christmas period. The majority of the backlog consisted of smaller cases and this should continue to decrease. There was also an increase in end-to-end times and a lot of it could be post-committee. The Legal agreement process could be  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.

There were no new items of urgent business.

To note the dates of future meetings:

20 February 2023

It was noted that the dates of the next meeting was 20^th February.