Agenda item

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: -

• That Extensions of time (EoTs) were not proactively used and that the Service’s main priority was to maintain performances for decision making. This was achieved by ensuring that there was good timetabling of applications and that decisions are made within these set timeframes. 

• That the Council met the cost of applications that it had been directed to refuse, which were later allowed following appeal. The Committee noted that there was no automatic cost award for allowed appeals and that there was an application process for these awards.

• That the 51 refusals of advertisement consent (Table 8 2019/20 Appeal Performance by Application) that were successfully appealed were predominately associated with telephone boxes.

• That the appeal statistics was an assured established independent method to measure the quality of decision making of the Service. Members noted that the appeal system in practice determined whether decisions could stand up to independent scrutiny.

RESOLVED:

1. Members considered the contents of the report and noted the ongoing good performance of the Place Shaping and Town Planning department in terms of its performance in the determination of planning applications and defending decisions to refuse permission at appeal.

2. That the Committee be provided statistics on the number of planning applications which were recommended for refusal by Officers and were granted by the Sub-Committees.