The Cabinet Member for Planning, the Head of Planning Services and a Planning Enforcement Officer have been invited to attend for this item.

The Chairman welcomed the Cabinet Member for Planning, the Deputy Cabinet Member for Planning, Head of Planning Services and Planning Enforcement Contractor to the meeting.

The Cabinet Member for Planning introduced the report and explained that the Planning Enforcement service had been given greater capacity, were better focused, were more responsive and data recording had improved.  He referred to letters of praise received, explained that the backlog had reduced to 142 cases and highlighted the continuing improvement in communication.

The Head of Planning Services drew attention to the improvements shown in the graph and table on pages 35 and 36 and explained that some older cases were very high profile, multi-agency breaches that required a lot of evidence.

The Planning Enforcement Contractor said that the Planning Enforcement team were building to be a good, successful team in the future and now approached cases more effectively.  He added that the team were tackling historically difficult cases using all internal and external resources and were more proactive in tackling prosecutions.

Members joined the Chairman in praising the improved, pro-active approach from the team, which was achieving good results.  A discussion ensued and the following points were raised:

·         Improvements to the Uniform system had led to more up-to-date information being accessed by Members;

·         questioned whether delays were caused in logging cases by the shared service;

·         suggested Members should be updated by email rather than automatically generated letters, and emails should be made more recognisable as being sent from Mid Kent Services (MKS) Planning;

·         clarification on how Members could be updated on all cases, not just priority cases in their wards;

·         more regular Planning Enforcement update reports were required at Planning Committee;

·         planning enforcement was more of a reactive service than pro-active; and

·         questioned how the staff resource in Planning Enforcement at SBC compared to other Councils.

The Planning Enforcement Contractor said that, as investigating officers’ time should not be taken up by administration tasks, complainants were encouraged to submit complaints themselves via the Swale Borough Council website which were then logged by the MKS Planning Administration.  He explained that some of the high figures of cases being closed on the chart were caused because some older cases had not been previously closed on the Uniform system.  The Planning Enforcement Contractor agreed to liaise with MKS Planning Administration with the suggestions made around informing Ward Members of cases.

The Head of Planning Services advised that the team of 3.8 FTE did not include the temporary Planning Enforcement Contractor and this compared favourably to other Councils, although team structures were not always the same.  He agreed to circulate details of numbers in other Planning Enforcement teams when the next survey was carried out. The Head of Planning Services advised that a Planning Conditions supervisor pilot scheme was programmed as part of the large Chilmington Green development in Ashford and consideration might be given for a similar role at other Councils in the future.

Members were advised that the temporary Planning Enforcement Contractor’s role had been extended for up to 2 more months and another Planning Enforcement Officer was due to go on maternity leave soon.  Councillor Andy Booth proposed that:

“Every effort be made to ensure that the contract of the temporary Planning Enforcement Contractor be extended further to assist in the continued improvements made in the Planning Enforcement Service.”

The proposal was seconded by Councillor Cameron Beart.

The Planning Enforcement Contractor informed Members that the new multi-agency approach to cases had created a good rapport with the Police and other parties were now working very effectively together.

The Cabinet Member for Planning and the Deputy Cabinet Member for Planning were both pleased with the improvements made to the Planning Enforcement service, the positive feedback from Members and praised the Planning Enforcement Contractor.

Resolved:

(1)  That every effort be made to ensure that the contract of the temporary Planning Enforcement Contractor be extended further to assist in the continued improvements made in the Planning Enforcement Service.