Agenda item

(Planning & Governance Portfolio Holder) To consider the attached report (C-013-2017/18).

(1)        That a Continuing Services Budget growth bid in the sum of £25,820 be made for 2018/19 for the establishment of a new post of Compliance Officer commencing on 1 April 2018;

(2)        That a revenue supplementary estimate in the sum of £109,760 be recommended to the Council for approval to convert the existing temporary posts of Technical Officer (Validations), Technical Officer (Systems) and two Assistant Planning Officers to permanent posts, effective from 1 October 2017; and

(3)        That District Development Funding in the sum of £40,720 be re-allocated for the temporary Local Land Charges Officer post, Grade 5 on a fixed term basis for 18 months, and the Clerical Officer post, Grade 2 on a fixed term basis for 12 months.

The Portfolio Holder for Planning & Governance presented a report on staffing structural adjustments within the Development Management section.

The Portfolio Holder reminded the Cabinet that the Development Management fee income had increased by over 50%, generating an additional £300,000 per year from 2014/15. Further additional income of £100,000 per annum had been created by the provision of Planning Pre-Application advice. In addition, although the levels of planning applications in the last ten years had increased by 33%, the establishment structure of Development Management had not increased accordingly. Whilst the Planning Officers and Support Staff within Development Management had absorbed greater workloads through process changes and greater use of technology, temporary contracts had been granted to handle the sustained demand for planning applications and advice. However, it was clear that this demand was not of a temporary nature.

The Portfolio Holder stated that investment in training and experience gained by the current temporary staff would be a loss to this Council. The staff occupying the temporary posts were looking for permanent positions and had acquired skill sets to be marketable. Losing the resources or having to devote senior staff time again to train new, temporary recruits was not a sustainable use of resources. Therefore, there was an urgent need to ensure that the Development Management team was both resilient and robust enough to sustain the current increased levels of Planning Applications, including Planning Pre-Applications, as a secure base for the future. Consequently, the proposed adjustments to the staffing establishment were required to support the effective management of planning applications and to meet the statutory timescales for the processing of planning applications.

The Portfolio Holder added that, in January 2017, management of Local Land Charges had transferred from Legal Services to Development Management. In addition to addressing the time taken to process searches, one of the key drivers for this change had been the Land Registry's plans to create a single Local Land Charges (LLC) register. The team would be supported to adopt and implement further electronic records improvements by the Electronic Information Team in Development Management. The Council was statutorily required to deliver digital spatially based LLC records to the Land Registry. The timescale was not certain but the task was significant as if the Council was unable to comply then there was a risk of potential financial penalties and loss of reputation.

The Cabinet generally supported the proposals, but some Members highlighted the lack of enforcement action throughout the District and hoped that the proposals would alleviate some of these issues. The Portfolio Holder reassured the Cabinet that although there would not be any new staff for the Enforcement Team, the burden on the Enforcement Team would be reduced by the proposed Compliance Officer post being proactive. The Compliance Officer post would have the same tools available to them as the Enforcement Team to prevent any deviations from the approved plans in construction.

Decision:

(1)        That a Continuing Services Budget growth bid in the sum of £25,820 be made for 2018/19 for the establishment of a new post of Compliance Officer commencing on 1 April 2018;

(2)        That a revenue supplementary estimate in the sum of £109,760 be recommended to the Council for approval to convert the existing temporary posts of Technical Officer (Validations), Technical Officer (Systems) and two Assistant Planning Officers to permanent posts, effective from 1 October 2017; and

(3)        That District Development Funding in the sum of £40,720 be re-allocated for the temporary Local Land Charges Officer post, Grade 5 on a fixed term basis for 18 months, and the Clerical Officer post, Grade 2 on a fixed term basis for 12 months.

Reasons for Decision:

To secure a stable, adequately trained and resourced structure to deliver the Development Management and Local Land Charges services in a professional and timely manner; bearing in mind the sustained high demands.

Other Options Considered and Rejected:

To do nothing. However, this would mean the loss of the temporary posts in which the Council had invested and the workloads would not be deliverable within the required timescales.

Without the temporary resource in Local Land Charges, the need to convert records and processes to electronic working while seeking to improve the turn round time for searches would not be achievable.

To simply increase the planning fees without appropriately applying the resource generated by those fee increases was not an option as the increased income had to be applied to the delivery of the Planning Service.