While recognising that there is scope for improvement, Suffolk Coastal’s Leader has robustly defended the work of the Council’s planning service after it was strongly criticised by three of the district’s parish councils.
This week the Council’s Corporate Services Scrutiny Committee is reporting back on its survey of the district’s 115 town and parish councils and their views on Suffolk Coastal’s planning service.
“Using any objective measures of our planning service, the facts are that it is performing well and helping to protect the natural and built environment of our district, but of course there is further room for improvement and I hope this Scrutiny review will help us identify what else we can do better,” said Cllr Ray Herring, Leader of Suffolk Coastal.
“Our planning team is at the forefront of this Council’s commitment to helping preserve and improve the district’s quality of life. Town and parish councils play an important role in helping us determine planning applications, and indeed statistics show that about 88 per cent of all our decisions are in line with their recommendations.
“However, the task of making the final decision does rest with this Council, and we have to reach our decisions professionally, consistently and in line with what is best for the district as a whole, and the relevant laws and regulations.
“In reaching a decision, the councillors on our development control committees, and our officers that advise them, have to deal with facts and planning laws. The weight of public opinion, or the emotive campaigns of pressure groups, cannot and indeed must not be the deciding factor, but showing that strength to take the right but not necessarily popular decision can cause local resentment,” added Cllr Herring.
Suffolk Coastal receives on average about 2,000 planning applications every year and each one is considered on its merits and within the context of existing planning policies, both local and national.
Its development control team has consistently met and exceeded Government targets for the time limits within which planning applications are determined, and recently received over £700,000 from the Government because of its efforts.
The quality, and therefore consistency, of decisions is also officially high, with a success rate of 74 per cent of successfully defending its decisions against appeals, which is 10 per cent higher than the national average. The service has also helped successfully deliver important projects that have helped safeguard and create jobs in the district such as the Felixstowe Port expansion, award-winning developments such as at Snape Maltings, play and leisure facilities funded by developers, and a steady growth in the amount of new affordable homes for local residents.
“Our planning service has a solid record of success and we want to use those foundations to make it even better. Putting to one side some of the emotive responses that appear to have been orchestrated by those still protesting against one or two of our planning decisions, there are many constructive comments from our parish and town council colleagues.
“We had already recognised the need for better communications which is why we have started having regular planning forum meetings with town and parish councils so that we can all be better informed about the constraints within which we all have to operate when it comes to planning applications. Last week’s forum saw over 75 delegates engaging in a positive workshop about helping parish councils to understand and fully participate in the planning process.
“A fresh emphasis on enforcement work has also been introduced, as there needs to be confidence that planning decisions and laws are being applied consistently across our district. However, because of the regulations which govern it, we all need to recognise that enforcement is an often a frustratingly slow process, and then can be mired in the courts,” added Cllr Herring.
The report prepared by the Scrutiny Committee highlights its key concerns based on all the 49 responses from town and parish councils, and 17 from councillors, and the issues it wants to look at in more detail – the quality of correspondence and telephone communications, the perceptions that the planning process favours the applicant and that planning policies are used selectively or inconsistently, the time constraints on responses from town and parishes, and how decisions which are not in line with the recommendations of towns or parishes are explained.
Cllr Herring will be attending the meeting and giving an update on all the action already being taken by the Council to make improvements to parts of its planning service.
