Agenda and minutes

(Head of Research and Democratic Services)  To report the appointment of any substitute members for the meeting.

None reported.

(Head of Research and Democratic Services). To declare interests in any items on the agenda.

In considering whether to declare a personal or a prejudicial interest under the Code of Conduct, Overview & Scrutiny members are asked pay particular attention to paragraph 11 of the Code in addition to the more familiar requirements.

This requires the declaration of a personal and prejudicial interest in any matter before an OS Committee which relates to a decision of or action by another Committee or Sub Committee of the Council, a Joint Committee or Joint Sub Committee in which the Council is involved and of which the Councillor is also a member.

Paragraph 11 does not refer to Cabinet decisions or attendance at an OS meeting purely for the purpose of answering questions or providing information on such a matter.

None reported.

The Panel is asked to formulate a terms of reference for its work for submission to the next OSC for endorsement. Draft proposals are attached for consideration.

Also attached is guidance notes and the OS request form for this review. The Panel is asked to give consideration to these documents. 

The Panel were invited to draft a Terms of Reference for their review. The Panel received a set of guidance notes and a copy of the request which led to the setting up of the Panel.

The Chairman of the Panel invited each member to put forward their ideas for inclusion in the Terms of Reference.

(i)         Aims of the Review

It was agreed that the overall aim of the review was to consider in detail the provision of Value for Money within the following Planning Services focusing specifically on:

• Development Control (including Appeals)
• Forward Planning
• Building Control
• Enforcement
• Administration and Customer Support
• Economic Development
• Environment Team

In relation to these matters, the Panel expressed a wish to:

(a)        identify the scope of each of these areas and the duties/functions each perform;

(b)        identify problems, possible solutions, barriers to success;

(c)        review the measures introduced since 2004 to improve performance within Development Control;

(d)            consider staffing levels, turnover, absence rates and whether they were sufficient;

(e)            consider the budgets available to Planning Services, information on costs and revenue, how they were managed;

(f)         identify customers/regular users views of the service.

(ii)            Benchmarking:

The Panel expressed a wish to research best practice elsewhere (‘Top Quartile’ Services) with the goal of identifying ideas for improving performance against targets. The Panel requested that this focus on Authorities’ outside Essex but of a similar size to Epping Forest. It was suggested that CIPFA/Performance Management Unit could provide this information.

(iii)       IT Issues

The Panel expressed a wish to review the new Planning IT system and consult with the suppliers of the system. It was suggested that a presentation be arranged for the next meeting of the Panel on 3 December 2007.

(iv)            Development Control

In relation to the Development Control Function, the Panel raised a number of areas for review as follows:

(a)        officer recommendations on applications - scope for cases without recommendations where the arguments were ‘finely balanced’;

(b)        Eight Week Target– to review the need to change the delegation scheme to facilitate this;

(c)        to canvass Members of the Councils Planning Committee/Local Councillors to obtain feedback on the review; (through Council Bulletin, Forester Magazine);

(d)            Planning Application Fees – scope for altering this, adding new items to the scheme;

(f)         Case Loads – current cases, process for distributing cases. Was this process fair?

(vi)      Policy Issues

Should the Council consider steps to amend its procedures to facilitate this review?

(v)            Documents for the Next Meeting:

The Panel asked to receive the following documents:

(a)        BVPI schedules - summaries of latest schedules for Planning and Economic Development (to be submitted to Panel on a ‘rolling basis’)

(b)        Best Value Review of Planning Services  - Copy of the updated plan 2006/07– (Panel were happy with the format);

(c)        a copy of the recent Customer Services Presentation (Planning Services) J Preston to contact S Tautz about this.

ACTION:

The Panel agreed the attached Terms of Reference for submission to the OSC on 8 November  ...  view the full minutes text for item 3.

Having set a Terms of Reference, the Panel is now asked to draw up its work programme with reporting deadlines for each item.

The Panel agreed the attached work plan for its next meeting on 3 December 2007.

The East of England Plan was about to go out for further consultation to take into account environmental assessments. The consultation was to last for 8 weeks and would be brought to this Panel.

To agree a forward programme of meetings for this Panel

3 December 2007 at 7.30 pm in CR1.