Agenda item

Members were asked to consider, note, and endorse the contents of a report ‘Local enforcement plan – planning guidance’.

Member heard that the Council had a statutory duty to investigate breaches of planning control although the decision on whether to act was nevertheless discretionary. Ensuring compliance with planning regulations was also considered to play an important role in safeguarding the policies of the Local Plan and achieving high standards of development across the Borough.

The NPPF (para 59) stated that effective enforcement was important to maintain public confidence and that local planning authorities should consider publishing a local enforcement plan “to manage enforcement proactively, in a way that is appropriate to their area”.

Additionally following last year’s scrutiny review of planning (development management) & adoption of open space, the agreed action plan (point 3) sought to introduce a local enforcement plan. A draft “Local Enforcement Plan” has been developed and this has been previously shared with CMT who supported the intention to introduce and ‘adopt’ the local enforcement plan.

The local enforcement plan did not have any legal status or formal adoption process, instead it was intended to provide guidance and increased transparency on the authority’s approach to how breaches of planning control would be processed with potential benefits being to help manage customer expectations and improve the overall customer experience.

Members were provided with a presentation which gave an overview of the following:

Prioritise and Waymarking

. Enforcement Prioritisation Categories

1. Emergency

2. High Priority

3. Low Priority

. Planning Enforcement Waypoints

4. Action and Priority Level

Expediency Test

. Planning Department assessment of a reported breach

Performance Monitors

.Service Standards

1. Response times to different categories of reported breach

2. Number of reported breaches received and determined per month.

3. How reported breaches had been received.

Categorisation Scores

. ENF categorisation lists

Priority Rating

. ENF Prioritisation table

. Risk Categories

The main topics discussed were as follows:

The plan was welcomed, and it was hoped that the backlog of reported breaches could be cleared asap.

More detail was requested to include details of breaches relating to demolition, conservation areas and Tree Preservation orders.

The process that was shared with the Committee did not form part of the planning enforcement plan; this was a general ethos in terms of how the Council dealt with planning enforcement. Breaches relating to trees went through a different process, however officers could look at including more detail.

Members felt it was important that they understood how the public would complete online forms to report breaches in order to help residents should they require it.

The process was based on a triage approach, assessing and prioritising allegations when they were submitted. Ideally residents should submit breaches online, where they would be asked a series of questions, where the alleged breach would be assessed against risk.

A motion was proposed and seconded that the item be deferred to provide Members with further planning committee engagement/training.

A vote took place, and the motion was carried.

RESOLVED that item ‘Local enforcement plan – planning guidance’ be deferred to a future meeting of the Planning Committee to allow time to deliver Member engagement/training to gain a better understanding of the planning guidance.