Issue - meetings

Consideration was given to a report on Planning Compliance Performance - Quarterly Update. This was the latest quarter report (Quarter 2, 2025/26).

The Stockton-on-Tees Local Enforcement Plan (LEP) was approved at planning committee in September 2024 and became ‘live’ on the 1 November 2024 and this report provided the latest quarterly report.

As part of the LEP, service targets were introduced which were;

 • 70% of enforcement case closed where no breach identified within 20 working days.

 • 60% of enforcement requests receiving an initial response, for example no breach of control identified or further investigation to be undertaken, within 10 working days.

 • 60% of planning enforcement cases, where the case actions are determined within the established priority timescales.

 An attachment to the report provided members with a snapshot of the over the last quarter’s performance for the planning compliance function. Some narrative and explanation of current performance and trends was also detailed within the report.

 Performance against the internal performance standards remained high with the relevant thresholds being exceeded in the majority of cases. Overall 98% of all the number of cases in the last quarter had had case actions determined within the identified priority period.

 A table within the report detailed that over the last quarter the number of cases received had increased.  A chart contained within the report showed that this was consistent with an upward trend in compliance cases being received since 2022. However, the overall time to process cases had reduced on the previous quarter demonstrating that the processes introduced to both manage and maintain momentum on compliance cases were continuing to work well.

 A number of cases had resulted in formal enforcement action, with notices having been served on three occasions during this quarter with assistance from the Council’s Legal Services team.

 Additionally, following the serving of notices in quarter 1 four notices had been fully complied with and those breaches of control having been resolved.

 Non-compliance with an enforcement notice was a criminal offence and unfortunately there were two cases where enforcement notices had not been compiled with. As a result, Officers were liaising with colleagues in legal services over appropriate next steps which may include prosecution.

Additionally, as a result of undertaking works in default associated with a Section 215 case, the recovery of costs were being sought through the courts.

For completeness, at the time of writing, the total number of unresolved compliance cases currently equated to 223, with 66 cases being historic cases received before the introduction of the Local Enforcement Plan.

The next quarterly update would be quarter 3 of 2025/26 (October - December), which was anticipated being reported in January 2026.

RESOLVED that the report be noted.