Agenda item

(Director of Planning and Economic Development) To consider the attached report.

The Sub-Committee received a report regarding Probity in Planning – Appeal Decisions for the period 1 October 2012 to 31 March 2013.

In compliance with the recommendation of the District Auditor, this report advised the decision-making committees of the results of all successful appeals i.e. particularly those refused by committee contrary to officer recommendation.  The purpose was to inform the committee of the consequences of their decisions in this respect and, in cases where the refusal was found to be unsupportable on planning grounds, an award of costs could be made against the Council.

In recent years the Council performance had been 18% in 2003/04; 29% in 2004/05; 22% in 2005/06; 30% in 2006/07; 29% in 2007/08; 40.3% for 2008/09; 30.9% in 2009/10; 36.6% in 2010/11; 28.8% in 2011/12 and 27.7% in 2012/13. 

Since 2011/12, there had been two local indicators, one of which measured all planning application type appeals as a result of committee reversals of officer recommendations (KPI 55); and the other which measured the performance of officer recommendations and delegated decisions (KPI 54).  

Over the six-month period between October 2012 and March 2013, the Council received 43 decisions on appeals (40 of which were planning related appeals, the other 3 were enforcement related).

KPI 54 and 55 measure planning application decisions and in total, out of this 40, 15 were allowed (37.5%). Broken down further, KPI 54 performance was 6 out of 25 allowed (24%) and KPI 55 performance was 9 out of 15 (60%).

Whilst performance in defending appeals had improved during the last couple of years, Members were reminded that in refusing planning permission there needed to be justified reasons that in each case must be relevant, necessary, but also sound and defendable so as to avoid paying costs. Whilst there was clearly pressure on Members to refuse in cases where there were objections from local residents, these views (and only when they are related to the planning issues of the case) were one of a number of the relevant issues to balance out in order to understand the merits of the particular development being applied for. 

      RESOLVED:

That the report regarding Probity in Planning – Appeal Decisions 1 October 2012 to 31 March 2013 be noted.