Tuesday 11 September 2012

It's Not The Planning Officers It's the Committee's


Last week the Government announced that the planning system was to be relaxed yet again (to the point of virtual non-existence apparently) and they were "Calling time on poor performing town hall planning departments, putting the worst into ‘special measures’ if they have failed to improve the speed and quality of their work and allowing developers to bypass councils. More applications also will go into a fast track appeal process".

Eric Pickles added, "... some councils need to raise their game, by failing to make planning decisions in a timely way. Planning delays create uncertainty both for local residents and local firms. So we will introduce a series of practical measures to help speed up planning decisions and appeals, and major infrastructure".

Now hold on a minute. I travel around Britain dealing with a wide variety of authorities all over the place and frankly, in over 30 years of planning applications, I have come across very few which could honestly be said to have been 'poor'. Irritatingly wedded to Local Plan policy irrespective of the circumstances, Yes. Hugely over-worked and struggling to meet targets because the average officer is bogged down in procedural requirements whilst doing three peoples work at half the pay. Certainly. But after all, they are only obeying Government orders.

I'm sure that somewhere out there there might be an authority that needs to be a bit more positive, or a planning team that could get its act together a bit better. Was it ever thus. Mrs B tells me that every time I step out of the house.

NO. I tell you where the screw up comes, when an application goes to committee. Sadly I sit in too many committees nowadays where members clearly have little or no understanding of even basic planning regulations. 

I sat in a committee meeting not so long ago which quite frankly warranted a prime time Friday night comedy spot. The sheer lack of any understanding of the application, its background, or the Officers detailed report, combined with the tragically poor level of (un-planning) debate would have been laughable if it hadn't been so serious. It made the Parish Council meeting sketches in the Vicar of Dibley look like a Fellows meeting at the Oxford Union.

My 'three minutes of carefully crafted fame' explaining, updating and imparting useful information sailed blissfully over the committee's head. They were on an entirely different planet.

Don't get me wrong. There are some excellent committee's out there with members who bother to prepare and understand the planning law and know what they're doing. But I am here to tell you that they are increasingly in the minority. I don't know what has happened in recent years but the quality of planning committees has really taken a downhill slide. Maybe it's because most applications are dealt with under delegated powers nowadays. 

OK. So its not the sexiest committee in the council, but it is the one that the public at large are most likely to come across in their everyday lives. In that case it should be the one that can demonstrably show at least some semblance of understanding what it is doing.

It is getting so bad I am professionally embarrassed for the Officers who have to sit there on a monthly basis patiently explaining basic planning law to people who evidently can't be bothered to learn it themselves to do their job, or don't remember from the last time they were told - in the previous case, for some. 

Dave, Eric. If you think I am joking, check out a few planning committees and see where the screw-ups really happen. Don't blame the planners. If you are handing planning back to the people, make sure they know what the devil to do with it once they've got it. Therein lies the ways to quicker, more satisfactory decision making and fewer appeals. 

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