Issue - meetings

Report ES19087

The report outlined Planning Enforcement performance against performance indicators agreed at a meeting of the Public Protection and Enforcement PDS Committee on 27 September 2018 (Report ES18069).

An update on appeal statistics previously reported in July 2019 together with additional information set out in a new format was also provided.

The aim of the report was to provide an analysis of appeals to support development of planning policy and activity.

A Member queried why the report had been classified as exempt from publication.  The Head of Planning and Development Support Team explained that Members were being asked to agree a new format for the report.  The new format adopted a more forensic approach detailing the current status of appeals and publication at this time could be detrimental to the Council’s interests.  It was noted that if the new format were agreed, any future reports would be considered in Part 1 of the agenda.

A Member raised concerns about Members calling decisions to Committee where the decision was subsequently overturned at appeal. It was noted that this issue had recently been raised at the Standards Committee. The Chairman highlighted that the Committee should be seeking to set a target of the decisions being overturned at appeal being no more than the national average. She added that this would link to the additional training that had been requested in respect of probity in planning.

A Member confirmed that he was happy with the new format which presented information that the Committee had not received before. The Member highlighted however that it was hard to compare one year to the next and that Members would need to consider trends over time.

The Vice-Chairman welcomed the more forensic approach to performance and noted that historical information had been included in the report for the purposes of demonstrating the proposed format to the Committee.  At this point Members were being asked to comment on, and if appropriate, approve the new format.  In time, further detail could be included in the reports which would enable the Committee to identify emerging trends.

In response to a question, the Head of Planning and Development Support Team confirmed that the new format would present all appeals for a given year.

RESOLVED that Members note the report and agree the new Planning Appeals format and contents.