Issue - meetings

To consider the report of the Overview and Scrutiny Working Group,(copy enclosed).

The Committee considered the report of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee Working Group which gave a further update on this potential scrutiny workplan item.

The Chairman introduced the report and took Members through the key points arising from the Working Group's consideration of this matter and emphasised that staffing/resourcing was a critical factor in terms of performance.

A discussion ensued during which a number of points and continuing concerns were raised. In response, the Lead Specialist - Planning Policy & Implementation provided the following information:

·        On staffing, permission has been granted to employ an additional officer.

The job was designed to include the review of planning conditions and it was hoped that an experienced person could be appointed at an early date. Although a current contractor would be lost, the new structure would be a Principal Officer and three other Officers, with administrative support.

·        Currently there are 562 open cases. 180 had been closed since the beginning of January, with another 83 prepared for closure.  Much of the outstanding backlog was historic.

·        On training, there would be a mandatory session on planning enforcement for all Members after the May elections, with the possibility of additional sessions throughout the year as Members wished. It may be beneficial to include a future session on planning conditions.

·        The team did not currently undertake out of hours working, although on occasions slight variations to standard working hours were made to complete certain investigations.

·        Work on the self-help Members mapping app was nearly finished and it would be rolled out around election time and will be included in the training sessions for Members on planning enforcement. This will mean that Members will have self-help access to enforcement cases, with weekly updates broken down to Parishes.

·        A review of the Enforcement Policy review would not be started until after the elections.

The Chairman then proposed an amendment to the recommendation contained in the report as follows: that the Committee receives this report on the issues and concerns previously raised and adopts this item as a scrutiny work plan item, with a focus on policy review, staffing resource and other ongoing performance review issues. This was duly seconded and agreed by the Committee

RESOLVED that the Committee receives this report on the issues and concerns previously raised and adopts this item as a scrutiny work plan item with a focus on policy review, staffing resource and other ongoing performance review issues.