Issue - meetings

To consider the report of the Service Manager Development and Estates.

Consideration was given to the report of the Service Manager Development and Estates.

The Team Manager – Development Management provided an overview of the report and advised that in terms of performance information the Council had decided 98% of all applications within an 8-week target. This compared to a Welsh average of 81%.

The average number of days taken to determine an application was 74 days from registration to decision set against a Wales average of 89 days. This figure had increased recently, however this was due to the significant increase in the amount of work the Department was dealing with at present. In terms of decisions made, 25% of Planning Committee decisions were made contrary to the officer recommendation. This compared Blaenau Gwent to an all Wales average of 7%.

The Team Manager added that the Department was struggling at the moment in terms of workload and it was felt that this would be the best report that would be seen for a while. There had been a significant increase in applications since January 2021 and teams had been reduced to sickness absence and a member of staff had recently left the Authority. The Team Manager also reported that there had been IT issues at the start of the year which had caused disruption in validating planning applications. It was with these factors in mind that a decision was taken to seek an external provider and someone had been appointed to have a batch of planning applications to assist with the workload over a 3-month period. The Team Manager advised that this situation would be monitored to ascertain if the supported was required for more than the initial 3 months.

A Member welcomed the proactive approach being taken by the Department to assist with the workload at the present time. The Vice-Chair concurred with the comments made and felt it was important that no further pressure was put on current staff.

The Member of the Planning Committee welcomed the report and felt the Department had done a good job under extreme pressure of the pandemic.

RESOLVED that the report be accepted and the information contained therein be noted.