Agenda item

Report DRR 13/052

In January 2012, Members endorsed the Outline Planning Improvement Plan as a framework for improvement and identified customer service as the first priority area. 

The report before Members focused on the trend of planning application performance and other customer service improvements, together with actions undertaken to date and those proposed for the future.

Visiting Member Councillor Tony Owen addressed the Committee and explained that his interest in planning improvements originated in 2006 when he arranged a presentation on Lean Service Delivery at the Cranfield University School of Management from which a project involving planning improvements had been initiated.  Councillor Owen referred to a published book entitled Delivering Public Services That Work - A Case Study which illustrated the following:

•  Flawed management thinking is the root cause of poor performance.

•  Putting staff who can solve people’s problems at the first point of contact improves service and reduces cost.

•  Performance indicators do not reflect the true customer experience.

•  Costs fall when service is improved.

•  Improvement is not a one-off activity - it’s every day.

•  IT should enable the process, not dictate it.

Councillor Owen was pleased to see the improvements outlined in the report however, in relation to the final bullet-point above and the improvements made to the Council's website, Councillor Owen observed that many elderly people were not computer literate and would, therefore, still rely on written correspondence. He requested that the following two areas of customer service be assessed:-

•  the length of time taken to process each planning application - many went beyond the normal timeframe; an appropriate software package could be used for this purpose; and

•  telephone call monitoring to establish the number of value and fault calls received.

The Chairman thanked Councillor Owen for his contribution to this item.  Whilst he was pleased to see a reduction in the amount of time taken to validate applications, he was disappointed to note that no reference to the planning counter service had been made in the report. 

The Chairman also highlighted difficulties experienced by members of the public and Councillors when attempting to contact planning staff via telephone.  Accessing archived documents within the target time of 24 hours also proved to be a problem with the average time of receipt being approximately 10 days.  He suggested that these two problematic areas should be addressed.

Councillor Michael commented that it would be useful if Members were provided with percentage figures for the number of planning applications which had been determined within their target time of 8 weeks for minor applications and 13 weeks for major applications.

Councillor Michael suggested that as enforcement action and untidy sites were important to residents and Members, they should be the next priority of the Planning and Improvement Plan.  Councillor Fawthrop agreed and suggested that performance figures should be compared with those of previous years to enable identification of any emerging trends.

Councillor Mrs Manning emphasised the importance of customer service and the need for quality decisions to be made.  Whilst improvements had been made during recent years, customer service should continue to be reviewed on a regular basis.  Although on-line work was increasing and improvements had been carried out to the web-site, drawings viewed on-line were still difficult to see clearly.

The Chairman suggested that the Acting Chief Planner give a presentation to Members before the next DC Committee meeting in June to address customer service issues.

Councillor Jackson agreed that enforcement action should be the next priority for review and requested information be provided on the number of long-running legacy cases within each Ward, how they were dealt with and the action being taken to bring them to conclusion.

The Chairman agreed and suggested that an Enforcement Officer be invited to attend the next meeting of the DC Committee.

Councillor Buttinger stated that future reports should be balanced by the inclusion of planning areas which were struggling.  Long-term strategies should be implemented to improve targets.

The Acting Chief Planner reported that the improvement in the validation process was due to the fact that the validation of each application was usually dealt with entirely by one Technical Officer (as opposed to several), before being passed on to a Development Control Officer.  Since March 2013, a total of 79% of minor applications had been completed compared to the previous figure of 63%. There were currently 650 applications pending as opposed to the 1,100 quoted on page 43 of the report.  Figures reported as reductions would be compared with those of previous time periods and circulated to Members at or before the next meeting of the DC Committee.

RESOLVED that:-

1.  the trend of planning application performance and other Customer Service improvements be noted;

2.  the Acting Chief Planner give a presentation to Members before the next DC Committee meeting in June to address customer service issues;

3.  the next steps in Customer Service performance, as set out in the report, be endorsed; and

4.  planning enforcement and untidy sites communication be the next priority for review.