Criticisms of Powys Planning Services

Once again Powys Council's Planning Services have come in for criticism, this time from its own councillors who undertook an internal review. The Scritny Review Panel's report can be found at http://www.powys.gov.uk/rep_2011-03-21repsc1_13.2a_en.pdf?id=47&L=0
The Conservative Group of the Council has taken little time at all in wading in with additional criticism including from Cllr Aled Davies who said at a meeting of the County Council: “I am constantly getting complaints from my constituents about the negative attitude of officials towards development proposals – just when Powys most needs to be encouraging economic regeneration. Powys Planning Services needs a completely different attitude towards the private sector. That’s where the work and the jobs are being created.”

Cllr Russell George also told the meeting that: “One of the major problems in Planning Services is the underperformance of some officials. That puts an extra burden on those who are working properly and so often is at the root of the poor service which the Scrutiny Committee has highlighted. We have known about these problems for a very long time. The time for action is now.”

The councillors' own report found that there was a difference in the quality of services between the two teams operating from Llandrindod and Welshpool, particularly in terms of customer service, individual officer performance and attitudes towards economic development, despite the Council's previous recognition that planning is an important and vital mechanism for delivering regeneration. The councillors' report recommended that
1. Given the differences in service between the two teams, and proposed WAG
changes to the planning system, that consideration be given to reviewing delivery of the service to ensure that an efficient, equitable and customer friendly service is provided across the whole county.
2. Applications submitted which are about to run out of time should be considered by the Senior Manager to ensure that there are no unnecessary delays.
3. Monitoring of applications delayed in the system for whatever reason should be undertaken on a regular basis, to examine the reason for the delay and to assess how much regeneration is being lost or delayed.
4. Planning Officers should be encouraged to challenge statutory consultee objections and to seek advice on a way forward, where the application is likely otherwise to result in a refusal.
5. Planning Officers should be encouraged to use their discretion more, and be given the confidence to use this discretion. Managers must instil into officers that regeneration is one of the main priorities of the Authority. In the current economic climate, private sector initiative should be given all the help it can, as the local economy may benefit from it.
6. Major IT changes should be managed by a dedicated officer from the relevant support service, who is given the time and support to manage the change effectively through to implementation.
7. A robust customer grievance procedure needs to be put in place, whereby all parties have the opportunity to meet early and discuss issues in respect of applications and at an operational level.
8. Where an officer is not performing to required professional standards, performance capability procedures should be instigated at an early stage, and pursued vigorously.
9. Planning Officers should attend Agents' Forums as well as Managers, so that all officers have a clear understanding of issues and concerns from the customer’s perspective.
10 Additional workshops/training sessions should be held cross-county to ensure exchange of good practice and consistency of approach as well as foster closer integration of the North and South teams. There should be consistency in the application of policies across the County to ensure that all clients have equality of service.
11. A more pragmatic approach to overcoming technical problems/planning issues needs to be adopted in some areas.
12. Members should have up to five weeks to call in an application. The current system is too restrictive, and can lead to unnecessary administration being placed on the service by blanket call-ins.
13. In view of recent WAG development control legislation there is a requirement to review the relevance of outline and full planning applications and to discuss the matter directly with WAG.
14. During 2009 Corporate Governance Committee investigated the length of time it took for S106s to be implemented. It is now appropriate to revisit this issue with other departments to ascertain whether the situation has been addressed.

It is a little disingenuous to be too critical of officers in the north and I suspect that the main charge in this criticism was led by Montgomeryshire's Conservative MP's Agent ( a former Chief Executive himself who dabbles periodically in planning matters without any planning qualifications and whose previous experience was back in 1996). Of course and as Cllr Wynne Jones Cabinet Member for Planning at Powys acknowledges, planning has become increasingly complex with planners having to balance a myriad of planning considerations as well as expectations from an increasingly articulate and knowledgeable public. The north of the County is the area of Powys under greatest pressure with far more complex applications being submitted. Agents often comment that the officers in the south of the County are far more approachable and communicate better. But is this something to do with workload pressures I wonder?

Having observed planners working locally (as well as talking to planning officers in both areas), I think there are a number of issues that need to be addressed, including:
a) Planners must make themselves available - in the Welshpool office it is almost impossible to get past the administrative officers who while hardworking and extremely pleasant, are no substitute for speaking directly to officers. Planning officers in Welshpool rarely take phone calls so that dialogue can occur and appear "frightened" of expressing a view - this is directly opposite to the officers in the south of Powys.
b) Planners in the north say that their senior planner responsible for the service has been up to Welshpool no more than a handful of times during his three year term of office. He should be made to spend 3 days a week in Welshpool and not hide away in Llandrindod and Brecon (where he lives).
c) All planning officers should adopt a "positive" attitude towards development, recognizing the importance of investment - at what ever level - to the economic health of Powys. There is a tendency to view applications negatively - starting from a position not "how can we approve" this application but rather "lets see what's wrong with it"!
d) Councillors should not listen to the handful of agents that have criticised the service - planning is a very complex activity (as Cllr Wynne Jones at least understands) and some agents are just not up to the job. Their clients should be demanding better from them having often paid silly fees. It seems to me that agents haven't kept up with this increased complexity and moan when they are expected to provide quality information. As a resident of Powys I am glad that Powys planners are demanding detailed planning applications - it is a pity that we have not got the quality of agents locally - one wonders whether they should demonstrate professional competence. One agent I know is now 70 and has never qualified in architecture, planning or any professional discipline!
e) I'm not sure whether the system whereby Councillors "call-in" applications for determination by Planning Committee is a really useful procedure. They should instead review the scheme of delegation so that major and contentious applications only are referred automatically to Committee rather than being left to officers to decide. Powys councillors have the habit on concentrating on minutea rather than what matters to the wellbeing of Powys. They should not get involved at all in the bulk of straightforward applications but only on really major decisions.

I do think the criticism that the performance of individual planners is poor is a myth. Surely there are internal management systems in place to monitor performance and effectiveness? But speed of determination is not really a very good indicator and Powys should look at quality issues and how these can be monitored. But the senior planner responsible for the service should be seen more often. He seems to be a little puppet for Cllr Wynne Jones who appears to dominate headlines when it comes to planning.