Agenda item

To receive a performance update.

The Committee received a short presentation providing an overview of the work of the Planning Service in 2015/16 and April 2017 including development management, enforcement and building control. An overview was also provided of historical performance to provide a context to discussions.

The Committee raised the following points in the discussion of the report and officer presentation:

·         The Committee requested that officers gave consideration to promoting successful planning enforcements cases, referencing a recent fly tipping prosecution by the Council that had received national media coverage. Officers agreed to provide further details of cases within monitoring reports provided to the Committee going forward and advised of two successful enforcement prosecutions within the last month (action: EW).

·         The Committee noted the success of the Building Control team at the recent London region Building Excellence Awards 2016 including winning a partnership award for the team’s work with CG Architects. The Committee asked that the thanks of the Committee be passed on to the Building Control team for their hard work and good performance over the year, despite ongoing challenges including continued oversight of the Spurs Stadium scheme as the development progressed. It was noted the Club had also praised the work of the team (action: Clerk/Chair).

·         In response to a request, officers agreed to circulate details of the three recent Assets of Community value nomination applications from 2015/16 (action: EW).

·         An issue was raised over the difficulties experienced by Councillors and members of the public in contacting the Planning Service to make enquiries. The Head of Development Management acknowledged that this was a challenge and to an extent reflected the high caseloads of planning officers and the need for them to dedicate time to determining applications and managing expectations around the timescales involved. The service was also currently experiencing issues related to the routing of calls through the Customer Service Centre. This was having knock on performance impacts such as the acknowledgement of planning enforcement complaints falling below target. Discussions were ongoing with the Customer Services team to resolve this issue. The Committee emphasised the importance of officers resolving this issue, with the involvement of the Chair if necessary to assist the process.  

·         The Committee sought clarification on the validation of planning applications, particularly whether improvements could be made to delays related to the clearance of cheque payments. Officers advised that this was a problem experienced nationally and that consideration was currently being given to refusing acceptance of cheque payments for this reason, subject to this action not disadvantaging applicants. 

The Head of Development Management outlined to the Committee a proposed revision to the Scheme of Delegation relating to Planning Committee as outlined within the Council’s Constitution. Currently, all planning applications where the Council were the applicant were delegated to the Committee to determine. This had resulted in a greater volume than expected of predominantly minor Haringey School schemes having to come before the Committee, thereby placing pressure on meeting agendas. It was therefore proposed to amend this requirement to allow the Chair to agree that a delegated decision could be taken on Council applications. The Committee expressed general support for this amendment, although emphasised that this should not impede efforts to try to improve the design quality of school developments. The Chair provided assurance that any Haringey school applications of concern would be brought before the Committee for determination.

RESOLVED

·         That the report be noted

·         To approve the change to the scheme of delegation proposed to allow for Chair’s discretion for Council own applications to be delegated decisions.