Minutes:
4.1 The Committee received a report which provided an annual update on the performance of the Place Shaping and Town Planning department in terms of the timeliness and quality of its planning application decision making and the success rate of planning appeals. The performance of the department over the period between April 2019 and March 2020 continues to significantly exceed the required performance thresholds set by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG).
4.2 The performance of local planning authorities in determining major and non-major development is assessed on a quarterly basis by the MHCLG. For the period from April 2019 to March 2020 the City Council met and exceeded the MHCLG Performance thresholds for both Major and Non-Major applications. The Major applications threshold was exceeded by 13.5%, whilst the Non-Major applications threshold was exceeded by 3.1%. Coupled with similar performance for the preceding 2017/ 2018 financial year, the City Council is not at risk of designation in respect of the quality and speed of its decision making. The Service continues to handle a high volume of planning applications whilst ensuring that timely decisions are made for the majority of applications.
4.3 There have been 14 virtual Planning Applications Sub-Committees since April 2020. The first virtual Sub-Committee were viewed by a wide range of audience which included local authorities, academic institutions, development industries and applicants. Officers advised that the diverse audience indicated that parties wished to view how the Council responded to the current climate and that they wanted to replicate the virtual Committee. The number of viewers of the virtual Sub-Committees have declined in the subsequent months and this was attributed to difficulties in finding the links to the live broadcast on the Council’s Web Page. Members were advised that the Council would be reverting to using previous broadcasting platforms in the forthcoming months and this would ensure easier access to the virtual meeting and increase the number of viewers.
Members noted the following: -
RESOLVED:
Supporting documents: