Development Services Business Plan

Transcription

1 Development Services Business Plan An overview of the service that our customers receive 1. Provision of pre-application advice service for all types of development proposal. 2. Validation and determination of all application types in timely manner. 3. Managing major developments and engaging with the relevant stakeholders to shape infrastructure. 4. Defending the lpa s position at appeal. 5. Monitoring compliance with planning permissions and securing contributions towards social infrastructure. 6. Investigating enforcement complaints including service of notices, defending appeals and ensuring compliance with local plan policies. 7. Developing improved practice in dealing with viability issues and application of new central guidance. 8. Developing electronic accessibility to planning application information including channel shift in consultations. 9. Ensuring efficient use of existing resources to deliver the service. Gross Expenditure 621,462 Gross Income 466,457 Net Expenditure FTE 18 staff comprising 15 fte & 2 x Actual Volumes/Costs 1,450 application types including listed buildings, discharge of conditions & permitted development proposals (require validation & planning appraisal but low fee) 550 letters (significant reduction in post correspondence, however increased e mail communication to dev control address 550 pre-application & permitted development requests telephone calls received / month 198 enforcement investigations 12 planning contravention Notices issued 3 Requests for Information issued 3 Enforcement Notices issued 1 Prosecution (successful) 1) appeal (successful

2 Corporate Plan Actions to be delivered by the team in year 2014/15 Specific Corporate Plan Ambitions Service Level Actions Progress to date Lead Officer Portfolio Holder To be completed by when? Economic Growth Help stimulate the economy & meet local housing need Support & work with Dorset LEP to influence potential new investment in the district that helps to achieve a growing and sustainable economy with more high value and skilled jobs. Raise profile of the district as a desirable place to do business by promoting the area to new business. Increase number of new homes built within district to meet local need across all tenures and reduce the number of empty properties. Improve pre-application understanding of growth opportunities arising from employment development opportunities. Positive engagement with Brewery, Rolls Mill & Gillingham SSA (including Brickfields), East Shaftesbury. Need to develop shared data management & dissemination of case studies To maintain 5 year housing supply & secure opportunities to deliver affordable housing across town & rural communities. To implement Gillingham Growth Board to oversee the progression of SSA applications. Work with Planning Policy Officer tasked with reducing empty properties to provide advice re reuse & development potential. Officers providing preapplication advice in respect of Brewery & Rolls Mill to facilitate employment development Early engagement with developers promoting New Plan allocations. Seek to make efficient use of sites capable of accommodating housing proposals. Resolution of affordable housing viability issues to ensure new proposals are deliverable. Appoint Major Development Officer to adopt pro-active J Hammond / Area Planning Team Leaders/ Major Developments Officer Val Pothecary engagement with development industry & landowners. Reviewed annually by AMR. 2

3 approach to SSA case management & infrastructure requirements working with HCA & LEP Encourage development of employment sites throughout the district to meet future business needs & stimulate jobs Improve officer understanding of economic development needs & employment opportunities. Proactive engagement with landowners. Develop additional training opportunities, review of existing evidence bases & data availability to develop training. Val Pothecary Reduce burdens to business by ensuring that our policies & speed of decision making of our regulatory services support growth & respond to business needs in proportionate, consistent & transparent way Ensure clear advice to prospective developers that balances legitimate planning constraints with council priorities. Develop recognition of economic outcomes & consequences arising from planning decisions. Working with town and parish councils to evaluate development proposals is light of the council s priorities. Access to Services Improve access to services shaped & prioritised around need and preference. Val Pothecary 3

4 Improve customer satisfaction by embedding customer excellence & right first time approach to enquiries. Increase quality and extent of planning information, including planning history available on Dorsetforyou to reduce need for visits to NDDC offices. Implementation of Uniform will improve customer capacity to create searches & receive status updates. Re-visit format or provision of pre-application advice & management of heritage applications to ensure peer review of advice & common contact points where posible D Walsh Quality of Life Policies, decisions & services balance the needs of different groups & discharge our responsibility to maintain quality of life Uniform implementation May Review pre-app structure September Balance development of housing infrastructure and economic activity with the need to preserve the character and quality of the district s countryside, open spaces and our built heritage and areas of outstanding natural beauty. Secure investment so that new development contributes to provision of infrastructure that communities need Policies within existing Plan & NPPF still require development to promote good design & recognise importance of national landscape designations. Consult with landscape officers from both Dorset & CC & WWD AONB s to secure specialist landscape advice. Prior to CIL to resolve by negotiation on a case by case basis, local infrastructure needs, working with towns & parishes as well as local consultees to identify infrastructure requirements. To support the Planning Policy Unit in developing its CIL evidence base. Clarification of monitoring / administration fee opportunity Officers now share workspace with conservation / design officers. Contribution to Design Awards selection & assessment negotiation of contributions based upon impact and local need, see town centre contributions arising from Asda / Tesco permissions & contributions towards education, local halls, play space & highways arising from housing permissions currently in Blandford, Shaftesbury, Bourton & Okeford Fitzpaine & T Warrick Planning Policy CIL charging schedule intended for April

5 Ensure our services effectively respond to and manage environmental nuisances and enforce Council policies and decisions in a consistent way that communities expect. Enforcement officers managed by Area Planning Team Leaders to ensure enforcement and DM priorities are aligned. Training in use of PACE secured by EO s. Enforcement notices have secured significant work to unauthorised buildings close to and within AONB s ( Farringdon & Milton Abbas) as well as heritage asset prosecution in Shaftesbury. Area Planning Officers Enforcement Officers Legal Service Level Actions to be delivered by the team in 2014/15 Service Level Actions Baseline Position at 1 st Apr 2014 Progress to date Lead Officer Portfolio Holder 1. Develop county wide Design Review Panel as required by NPPF No independent DR available within NDDC. Discretionary referral to SWDRP Met with Creating Excellence to consider formats and options via DMOG. 3 options discussed; sub group of SWDRP, local Panel established by SWDRP or Dorset LPA internal group. Awaiting feedback from DEMG relating to ownership & resource priority To be completed by when? J Hammond D Walsh September

6 2. Conclude town / parish e consultation change over. Trial with 9 towns & parishes indicated there are no fundamental reasons why electronic communication cannot be successfully delivered. Some issues raised relating to document labelling & scaling. These issues are being worked through to improve service. Electronic consultation rolled out to all T & P Councils from 1 st February Reduced postage & admin work required to generate paper copies albeit labelling / scanning all submissions has increased work requirements. Generally positive feedback from T & P Councils. Some instances of reluctance to cede paper, however this is not a T & P council issue. J Hammond / BSTL D Walsh April Embed integration between DM & Enf officers developing training for latter in planning merits. Mentoring of Enf officers in application assessment and process. Engagement of DM officers in managing application through whole life. Turnover amongst Enforcement Officers over 2013 set project back. Need for structured training identified. Some planning application assessment by C Rogerson, undertaken to date. Development work required to ensure both officers have skills to deal with planning merits. Need to revise S.106 & condition management records J Hammond & Team Leaders D Walsh September Develop Accredited Agents scheme & promote submission via Portal Over 15 month period scheme built up to 10 accredited agents. Officers investigated extending scheme to include agricultural developments, however little interest expressed by agents in this expansion of scheme. Issues relating to capacity to scale plans submitted via the planning portal still require download & scanning rather than electronic filing. Scheme has allowed technical support officers to focus time on more complex applications & manage backlog of applications awaiting validation. IT support looking at ways to allow scaling of these image types to reduce process steps. J Hammond / BSTL / Technical Support Officers D Walsh April

7 5. Integrate preapplication advice into Uniform to ensure electronic storage and subsequent management. Review pre-application advice in light of agents survey to clarify how to remove / reduce inconsistencies. 6. Develop training programmes for officers in relation to commercial development opportunities Paper based pre-application requires separate indexing system & paper record outside civica. To follow on from corporate priority to focus upon growth and economic development to create greater understanding of commercial drivers and attractants for growth Uniform allows for cases to be recorded & consulted upon automatically. Also provides clearer timeline for responses. Need for senior review of advice linked to charging & expectations & agents views re improvements. New project. Seek training opportunities via RICS & similar bodies BSTL / J Hammond / K Morris / Team Leaders J Hammond Team Leaders D Walsh Sept D Walsh V Pothecary Sept Improve range of scanned planning history & search functionality on Dorsetforyou Extend the back history of scanned files, reducing paper storage & providing improved electronic access. SMT approved back scanning from Need to manage indexing & recovery of in use / missing files. J Hammond BSTL D Walsh Sept 2014 Risk Management The major risks identified are: Reduction in planning fees relating to increased use of permitted development rights for new development. 7

8 Significant changes in workload arising from New Plan progress or changes in market confidence Loss of experienced staff Capacity to defend decisions arrived at by DM Committee and avoiding costs awards Risk No Risk Owner Likelihood Impact Score Vulnerability/Cause Consequences 1 JH Changes to permitted development regime to allow new build housing together with changes of use for vacant buildings into housing & other uses with fixed fee below planning application fees but requiring planning appraisal. 2 JH Significant number of major development proposals coming forward, linked to increase in scale of renewable projects generally & consequences of consultation for New Plan (either seeking to secure development before settlement boundaries disappear or promoting new allocations in line with Plan proposals 3 JH Significant change in working practices may lead to officers finding increasing difficulties in adapting to new working practices. Age profile of unit & vulnerability to early retirement proposals. 4 JH / DMC Increasing % of officer recommendations overturned at DM Committee. Refusals lacking adequate grounds or failing to accord with consultee recommendation. Training undertaken with members in relation to defending appeals & 5 year supply issues, however still willing to overturn statutory consultee advice. Cost awards (2) in 2013 related to committee overturn of officer recommendation (circa 8,000 costs paid out) 5 JH Poor broadband or facility for parish meeting. P Cllrs resistance to change & lobbying for traditional consultation, particularly as we move from wiling pilot councils to an 8 Loss of fee income for rural development, changes of use and alterations to employment and education buildings, however similar levels of work required to validate, publicise & assess proposals. Significant pressure on existing staff, possible need for external consultee input, inability to afford time to development projects, increased risk of appeals due to changing policy positions & pressure upon committee to reject proposals relating to existing Plan policies Loss of experienced staff. Reduction in staffing resulting from Lean review reduces capacity to cover absent staff. Inability to present adequate case at appeal. PINS resolving the LPA has acted unreasonably. Costs awards not budgeted for within Service Budget. Retention of paper consultation increases support officer time & costs in consulting. Creation of 2 tier consultation process. Additional support required for the 2 nd phase

9 imposed position 6 JH Improvement in market confidence or delivery of viable permissions for development outside emerging permitted development environment. Increase in number of householder applications as families adapt rather than seek new accommodation. Increase in enforcement cases proceeding to prosecution. parish / town councils Linked to 1 above, reliance upon less experienced staffing. Developing new techniques to resolve enforcement cases, particularly court skills. Corporate Plan and Service Performance information measures for 2014/15 DS7 DS3 DS6 DS2 DS4 Code Description Time Period Target Customer Survey 2 yearly None (74%) Average time to determine Monthly % success at appeal Quaterly Average income Monthly % successful negotiations for affordable housing Quarterly 9