Agenda item

To consider a report by the Development Manager, Planning and Public Protection (copy attached) seeking members’ views on the draft Planning Compliance Charter setting out how alleged breaches of planning control were dealt with and how complaints and local organisations such as City, Town and Community Councils could assist in securing planning compliance.

10.10 a.m. – 10.40 a.m.

The Lead Member for Planning, Public Protection and Safer Communities introduced the Development Manager’s (Planning and Public Protection) report (previously circulated), which outlined how the Council dealt with and worked to resolve alleged breaches of planning control conditions.  The report also detailed how City, Town and Community Councils, complainants and local organisations could work with the Council to secure planning compliance.  Attached to the report was a copy of a draft Planning Compliance Charter for the Committee’s observations.  This Charter had been drawn-up at the Committee’s request following a discussion on planning compliance resources at its meeting in December 2018.  The Council’s Development Manager (Planning and Public Protection) provided an overview of the draft Charter focusing on the three stage process developed within the Charter, these being –

·         investigation of alleged breaches

·         assessing the level of investment required in order to investigate the alleged breach, and

·         determining the most appropriate method to remedy any proven breaches.

He advised members that the Service needed to involve City, Town and Community Councils in the compliance process as they were the local eyes and ears who were likely to be alerted to alleged breaches at an early stage, therefore having their assistance with the process could help the County Council to prioritise compliance work more effectively, particularly in view of its very limited resources in this specialist field.  If City, Town and Community Councils were willing to sign up to the Charter it would assist to manage their and the public’s expectations and may eventually lead in years to come to Business Improvement Districts (BIDs) becoming involved with the process.

Responding to members’ questions the Lead Member, Corporate Director: Economy and Public Realm, Head of Planning and Public Protection, Development Manager and Planning Officer –

·         outlined the multi-faceted approach towards prioritising the investigation of alleged planning compliance breaches, depending upon the urgency involved with the allegation, as illustrated in paragraph 2.4 of the draft Charter

·         acknowledged that, similar to local authorities City, Town and Community Councils had very limited financial resources available to them.  The objective of the Charter would be to enlist the help of this tier of local government to assist the County Council to prioritise its compliance work by undertaking local audits of planning matters taking place in their communities and to ascertain whether they had obtained/not obtained the required consent

·         confirmed that whilst a number of support and enforcement staff from the Planning and Public Protection Service, when visiting various areas of the county to undertake their duties, did report any potential planning breaches to the Planning Officer and had been trained to undertake some limited investigative work, they would not be qualified to undertake planning enforcement duties in relation to any breaches as that was a specialist role.  However, this close working relationship between various enforcement officers did help the Planning Officer to prioritise his work

·         advised that whilst planning compliance work on the whole tended to be reactive, some proactive compliance work was undertaken when potential breaches came to light at a very early stage

·         advised that they were of the view that the Charter document would also be useful to residents and local businesses as it outlined what standards were expected from them and what the Council could do if they breached any planning compliance standards

·         confirmed that the approach to dealing with eyesore sites was different to that of dealing with non-compliance to planning conditions. Addressing eyesore sites was a complex process which necessitated officers from a range of different services to work together.  Fortunately funding had been sourced for a two year period to employ a temporary Planning Officer to focus on Rhyl town centre as part of the project to regenerate the area.  The creation of this temporary post had proved extremely successful in its first twelve months.  The temporary post was funded for a further twelve months, but due to the benefits realised to date from its creation officers were exploring potential funding streams to fund it for future years with the possibility of the officer’s remit being extended to cover the entire county area

·         acknowledged members’ concerns regarding the Charter document, if adopted, being a public document and readily available for all to read which may encourage some residents to flout planning conditions if they realised that such non-compliance was unlikely to be treated as a priority for enforcement action.  Nevertheless, the Lead Member and officers were confident that the adoption of the Charter and its availability to the public would help manage residents’ expectations in relation to non-compliance matters. It was important to remember that all planning legislation stated that enforcement was discretionary, and allowed contraveners time to remedy non-compliance matters including applying for retrospective planning permission if necessary  

·         advised that enforcement officers’ time should not be utilised for the purpose of resolving disputes between neighbours

·         confirmed that the Planning Officer did prioritise his work on an urgency basis and due to the volume of queries/complaints received the list of priorities changed on a regular basis

·         it was always useful for the Planning Officer to receive as much information as possible, including photographic evidence, when queries/complaints were made as this helped with the prioritisation process.  Nevertheless, it would be extremely difficult to include in the Charter a definitive list of the types of information or evidence required as every case was different

·         advised that the proposed monitoring framework for community benefit compliance of Section 106 agreements was entirely different to the process for planning compliance monitoring of individual residential or business premises.  Two posts would be created in the Community Benefit Hub with a view to supporting communities to access community benefit funds, such as Section 106 funding etc. to help deliver the Council’s Environment and Resilient Communities corporate priorities, and

·         emphasised that the concept of having a Planning Compliance Charter with City, Town and Community Councils was to reduce the risk of planning contraventions occurring in the first place, as these organisations were based within the community and would be alerted early on to potential non-compliance.  There was no expectation for City, Town and Community Councils to be experts in the field of planning, but they would have access to County officers for advice and guidance.  Officers from the Planning and Public Protection Service could attend their meetings to deliver training and brief them on planning compliance matters if required.

The Chair requested that, following consultation with City, Town and Community Councils on the Charter, the report which will be presented to the Committee should include information on the responses to the consultation, staffing resources, communication timescales with the public and the number of complaints received by the Service on planning contraventions.  At the conclusion of the discussion the Committee –

RESOLVED that subject to the above observations –

(a)       to endorse the Charter as drafted;

(b)       to request that the draft Charter be circulated to City, Town and Community Councils for consultation and comments, and

(c)        that the revised Charter, following the consultation process, be presented to the Committee for endorsement and recommendation for adoption in December 2019 along with the requested additional information.