Agenda item

No urgent matters raised.

 

At this juncture, the Chair informed members that there were two questions which had been received.

 

Question 1

Question put forward by Councillor Terry Mendies to the Lead Member for Local Development and Planning, Councillor Alan James –

 

“In May of this year planning breaches in the county totalled 561, that had more than doubled from 250 breaches 16 months earlier.  Why is that?

 

On 30th November, in less than 3 weeks, the Head of Enforcement is leaving DCC to start a new position in Scotland.

 

The other enforcement officer has already transferred to another department within DCC.  Have these vacant positions been advertised, if not, why not?

 

Also, given that there is such a high number of breaches, and given that Flintshire has just engaged an extra 2 enforcement officers, does he think we should be employing more than 2?”

 

The Lead Member for Local Development and Planning, Councillor Alan James, responded as follows:

 

The increase in planning breaches during the past two years was largely due to the employment of two temporary placed Improvement Officers funded by shared prosperity funding.  These two officers had been proactively identifying breaches and problems in order to take action to improve those properties. 

This proactive action had meant that the total breaches recorded had increased. 

 

There were currently two permanent planning compliance officers within the Development Management Team.  The Principal Planning Compliance Officer postholder had been successful in securing a post outside Denbighshire County Council.  We would like to thank him for all his excellent work and wish him all the best in his new role.  This situation happened 2-3 weeks ago and since then approval from CET had been secured for the recruitment panel to advertise this post which was being processed. The Planning Officer Compliance post was currently vacant as the postholder had secured promotion into another role in the Development Management Team. 

 

I am well aware that DCC services were being asked to consider all options to make significant savings for 2025/2026.  Not filling the post was one of those options to make savings.  Therefore, this vacant post would be an option that members would need to debate over the coming weeks.   No decision had been made to delete this post to date. 

 

It was also confirmed that Flintshire County Council were not advertising for two Planning Enforcement Officers.  All councils employed a wide range of Enforcement Officers from across various services, and, therefore, these alleged two new posts may be different roles to Planning Enforcement.

 

Councillor Terry Mendies then asked a supplementary question as follows:

“Given that these planning breaches have more than doubled and given that some of these planning breaches date back 13 years, and given that the Head of Service is taking £120,000 of tax payers money each year, does the Lead Member think that the tax payer is getting value for money?”

 

Councillor Alan James responded to agree to contact Councillor Mendies in due course with a response to his supplementary question.

 

 

Question 2

Question put forward by Councillor Brian Jones to the Lead Member for Environment and Transport, Councillor Barry Mellor –

 

“Could there be an explanation from the Lead Member regarding the lack of waste bin collections in Rhyl over the last two weekends - i.e. weekends of Saturday the 2nd and 9th Nov 2024.  Numerous complaints have been received.  Why has that happened in Rhyl over the last two weekends.  I believe it has happened in Prestatyn and elsewhere.”

 

Councillor Barry Mellor responded as follows:

The DCC Streetscene Team continue to work very hard to clear the waste from the streets despite a difficult and challenging financial position.  Shared Prosperity Fund money had been used in recent years to support the service by providing additional resources during the peak tourism season. 

 

In October 2024, this funding arrangement ceased, which meant the team were now working through and implementing a revised service schedule to ensure the waste was collected in an expedient manner.  This may, at times, mean that clearance days are moved from weekends to the beginning of a working week. 

 

The service was actively working to address this issue and to provide a regular weekend waste clearance activity moving forward. 

 

Councillor Brian Jones then asked a supplementary question as follows:

“Will the Lead Member issue to the public what he has run through, what is going to happen to remedy this on the run down to Christmas and can he do that as soon as possible?  Residents do not understand what is happening.  The Lead Member has just alluded to the Shared Prosperity Fund supporting the collections has now stopped, therefore, can he issue something to the media so that residents understand what is happening, and what is likely to happen on the run down to Christmas so it is clear to everyone in Denbighshire.”

 

Councillor Barry Mellor responded to the supplementary question put forward by Councillor Brian Jones. 

Councillor Mellor confirmed he was happy to put a communication out to the public to keep them fully informed.