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The Committee received report ES/1303 of the Cabinet Member with responsibility for Planning and Coastal Management, which provided an overview of the proposed plan of action for resolving issued highlighted within the Audit Report of the delivery of Planning Enforcement.
Councillor Ritchie introduced the report and outlined the current structure of the Enforcement team within the Council's Planning service. Councillor Ritchie highlighted the Council's wish to have a first-rate Enforcement service and was pleased to be able to present the proposals to the Committee. Councillor Ritchie expressed gratitude to the Scrutiny Committee for its input on this issue and its positive feedback on the proposed changes to the Enforcement service, as well as to the Council's Internal Audit team for its recommendations.
The Planning Manager (Development Management, Major Sites and Infrastructure) provided a case study of an Enforcement case at land adjacent to Oak Spring, Darsham, which had concluded at the High Court the previous week. The Committee received an outline of the enforcement history on the site and the breaches of planning control between 2017 and 2022 and the actions taken and available to the Council. The Planning Manager confirmed that an injunction had been sought and this was granted by the High Court, with the Council being awarded costs of £8,000.
The Chairman invited questions on the enforcement case study.
Several questions were asked by members of the Committee in relation to retrospective planning applications and the options available to the Council. Officers empathised with Members' frustrations about retrospective applications but were clear that the Council, as the Local Planning Authority, was required to consider all planning applications on their merits and cannot penalise applications that are retrospective. The Planning Manager noted that retrospective applications were made at the applicant's risk, as if planning permission should not be granted, they would be required to restore the site to its original condition.
The Licensing Manager & Housing Lead Lawyer was able to advise the Committee that the injunction granted by the High Court required the site at Darsham to be restored to its original condition by 6 March 2023; the Committee was advised that if the site owner does not meet the injunction, they may be liable to sanctions including a fine and/or a custodial sentence.
The Committee received a presentation on the proposals to improve Planning Enforcement from the Principal Planner (Technical Lead), who summarised the key actions as being caseloads and resources, use of software and digitisation, the signing off process, reporting of updates on cases to Members, and questions from Members on enforcement cases not included in the case update reports to the Planning Committees North and South.
The Principal Planner outlined how the new document management system (DMS) would assist in simplifying processes and how officers will be able to accurately identify the current number of breaches at a given time. The new system would also produce more statistics and provide an accurate portrait of how officer time is spent on enforcement cases. The Principal Planner detailed that the new systems would automatically prompt cases for sign off, reducing the risk of cases being overlooked.
Officers summarised the changes to the case update report presented to the Planning Committees North and South, particularly the change to the report template that would provide information in a clearer manner. The Principal Planner also set out the protocol for asking questions on cases not included in these reports, so to avoid prejudicing cases at an early stage in a public forum.
The Chairman invited questions and comments to Councillor Ritchie and the officers.
The Planning Manager set out where the four and ten-year rules were applicable on dealing with planning breaches and explained that cases of highest priority were not allowed to reach this point. The Planning Manager advised that on rare occasions, low priority cases where it was considered not to be beneficial to act would result in these time limits passing and lawful use being achieved on those sites. Members were advised that there was less control on the occasions where breaches only come to the Council's attention shortly before the expiration of these time limits.
The Planning Manager confirmed that the Planning service had been working with the Council's ICT department, including the Head of Digital and Programme Management, on implementing the new systems detailed in the presentation. The Committee was informed that this action was a key part of the proposed improvements and that the new DMS would be more user-friendly and flexible.
The Head of Planning and Coastal Management was of the view that an additional Planning Enforcement Officer and the addition of administrative support would be sufficient and would have a positive impact on the team's workload. The Head of Planning and Coastal Management welcomed comments from Members on the efficiency of officers in the team.
On the proposition of Councillor Ritchie, seconded by Councillor Bird it was by a unanimous vote
RESOLVED
That the content of the report be noted.