Agenda item

Report of the Interim Chief Planning Officer and Development Director.

The Committee received a report of the Interim Chief Planning Officer and Development Director providing Members with a list detailing development applications received by the Department of the Built Environment since the report to the last meeting.

The Interim Chief Planning Officer and Development Director highlighted that the Department was currently busier than ever with November 2020 statistics depicting that applications were higher now than pre-lockdown in March 2020.  He therefore forewarned Members that a number of major, ambitious schemes would be put to the Committee in the next six months and reported that the department had been resourced to be able to withstand this amount of work and move things forward as quickly as possible.

A Member requested that, where there were major applications to be considered, these were considered at separate, dedicated meetings so that they were able to be adequately deliberated.

The Town Clerk reported that additional meeting dates were currently being identified for the first quarter of 2021 for this purpose.

Another Member spoke to suggest that no more than one substantial planning application should be put on an agenda for each meeting. The Chair agreed with this point.

Another Member suggested that fortnightly meeting dates, set in advance, could also be helpful. The Chair highlighted that similar comments were now being received from all parties and that he and the Deputy Chair were assuming that Members would be amenable to this. He commented that agenda plans were being drawn up on the assumption that just one application per meeting would be considered and that, as such, it was clear that additional meetings would be required in 2021 which Members would be notified of as soon as possible.

The Deputy Chair added that reports on applications and Officer presentations should always be as thorough as possible with papers circulated to all in advance. He added that fortnightly meetings could prove difficult for working Members.

Another Member added that site visits or virtual site visits should also always be provided wherever possible. The Chair stated that he had never refused the request from any party for a site visit and agreed that these were helpful, particularly if they could be delivered virtual in the current circumstances. He added that briefings were also sometimes organised by the applicant as per the Planning Protocol.

A Member picked up on the Interim Chief Planning Officer and Development Director’s comment about his team being properly resourced to deal with forthcoming applications and questioned whether, given the ongoing effects of COVID-19, there had been any notable time delays or ‘congestion’ in terms of the processing of development applications. The Interim Chief Planning Officer and Development Director reported that the Department had recently lost a number of experienced Planning Officers. He confirmed that a period of successful recruitment had followed this and that he was of the view that the Department were now in a strong position resources wise. He did not, therefore, believe that any schemes had been compromised in terms of timescales but undertook to keep this matter under review.

RESOLVED – That Members note the report.