Agenda item

HPR2022/030

DRR

The introduction to the Planning Enforcement Progress and Monitoring report from April 2020 to March 2021 was provided by the Head of Planning and Development Support.

In summary, the purpose of the report was to provide an update on various planning enforcement cases and the Committee was being asked to consider and note the report.

It was explained that any breaches of planning regulations would sit with Councillor Alexa Michael as Chairman of the Development Control Committee. If it was subsequently deemed by the Development Control Committee that enforcement action was required with respect to breaches of planning regulations, then the enforcement action would fall within the remit of the Public Protection and Enforcement PDS Committee. The report that was presented on the night was related to the last 12 months before June 2020 when there was the lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

A year on year comparison would be provided on the next report to the Committee. Members noted that the main area of legislation that was relevant to the enforcement of planning regulations was The Town and Country Planning Act. In terms of planning enforcement the Head of Planning and Development Support explained that the cases would go directly to Court or otherwise the cases would be presented before one of the Planning Sub-Committees with a request for Members to agree to ‘direct action’. In such cases a fine could be issued or a charge placed on a property. No budget existed for direct action.

Attention was drawn to the Council’s enforcement policy, it was noted that this was also available on the Council website and that it was due to be updated soon.

The Chairman drew attention to section 3.8 of the report which stated that as of the 31st of March 2021, there was a total of 476 open enforcement cases currently under investigation or pending consideration; he asked why this number was so high. The Head of Planning and Development Support pointed out that these were figures as of the 31st of March 2021 and therefore the current figure would in fact be higher. This number had risen from a backlog of cases, more resources were required, but there would always be a backlog of cases as this was how the Department worked.

A Member referred to section 3.11 of the report and the table which detailed the 68 enforcement notices in connection with breaches of planning regulations that occurred between April 2020 to March 2021; it was confirmed that in effect the data being provided was a year behind. A Member commented that it would be helpful to have comparable data  presented over a number of years. She asked if this data could be presented at the next meeting. The Chairman suggested that it may be more appropriate to disseminate this data outside of the meeting so that it didn't have to come back to the next meeting. The Member also queried if data was available to the 31st of March 2022 instead of 2021. The Head of Planning and Development Support said that this data could indeed be accessed quickly. It was requested that when the next report was presented, that the data be more current.

RESOLVED that

1) The report be noted and that data to March 2022 be disseminated to the Committee.

2) When the next report was presented, the data should be current.