Minutes:
The Committee received a report which provided details on the performance of the Planning Enforcement Team for the fourth quarter (1st January 2022 to 24th March 2022). The previous monitoring update to the Planning Applications Committee was in January 2022 and reported on performance from 1st September 2021 to 31st December 2021.
During the period in question, the Planning Enforcement Team, which was part of the wider Corporate Enforcement Team, investigated allegations of planning breaches, as shown below:
|
Number of referrals received |
48 |
|
No breach found
|
8 |
|
Breach resolved |
8 |
|
Not expedient to pursue |
3 |
|
Enforcement Notices issued |
3 |
|
Requisition of Information Notices (PCN/S16/S330) issued |
0 |
|
Planning applications received dealing with matters under investigation |
2 |
|
Pending consideration (Open investigations) |
26 |
As previously reported, the new role Planning Enforcement Officer (Compliance) was filled in September 2021. Due to a large number of significant high priority urgent investigations in existence, this resource had been utilised in dealing with these investigations as a first priority.
The Team had made significant progress in reviewing the outstanding investigations and had moved into the new year in a much better position, and noted the added temporary resource in the form of an additional Planning Enforcement Officer. Therefore, officers had been working on formally instating the Compliance role from the new financial year which was now set to take place on 1 April 2022.
As previously reported the Uniform project remained ongoing. Furthermore, extensive additional work had been undertaken on this project since the installation of Enterprise. The latest work concentrated on the reporting mechanisms which involved significant input from both the Corporate Enforcement team and the IT service.
Members praised officers for the recent swift action that they had undertaken in Bagshot. Members also applauded the pragmatism taken by the service in respect of a closed case of the installation of 3 solar panels on a flat roof. Furthermore, the Committee noted that the new format of reporting of the pre-application process was very clear and readable.