Agenda item

(Director of Governance)  To consider the attached report and appendices.

The Sub-Committee received a report regarding Probity in Planning – Appeal Decisions 1 April 2016 to 30 September 2016.

The report advised the decision making committees of the results of all successful allowed appeals, particulary those refused by committee to officer recommendation. The purpose was to inform Members of the consequences of their decisions in this respect and, in cases where the refusal was found unsupportable on planning grounds, an award of costs could be made against the Council.

Since 2011/12 there were two local indicators, one measured all planning application type appeals as a result of committee reversals of officer recommendations (GOV08) and the other measured the performance of officer recommendations and delegated decisions (GOV07).

Over the six month period between 1 March 2016 and 30 September 2016, the Council received 49 decisions on appeals (48 of which were planning related appeals, the other 1 was enforcement related).

GOV07 and 08 measured planning application decisions and out of a total of 48, 18 were allowed (37.5%). Broken down further, GOV07 performance was 8 out of 32 allowed (25%) and GOV08 performance was 10 out of 16 (62.5%).

For the Area Plans East Sub-Committee, four appeals were allowed against decisions made and four were dismissed.

Councillor Philip noted that this was a acceptable 50/50 result and Councillor Surtees commented that it was not an inappropriate way to proceed.

RESOLVED:

That the Probity in Planning report covering the period April 2016 to September 2016 be noted.