Minutes

Apologies received from: Sheila Black, Hilary Ellis, Anna Goodall, Matthew Hall, Emma Nasta, Rikki Parsons, David Rowen, and Anne Wardle.

Present: Hannah Albans, Dino Biagioni, Stephen Buddle, Mark Dennis, Nick Harding, Simon Jackson, Councillor Dee Laws, Peter Harley, John Maxey, Nicholas Mills, Graham Moore, Nicola Oldfield, Collette Panther, Nick Seaton, George Stone, Bill Tilah, Jordan Trundle, Chris Walford and David Wyatt.

The notes of the previous meeting were approved and the actions were discussed.

Nick Harding made reference to an action with respect to a possible meeting with the CPCA and Homes England concerning highway improvements in Fenland, and he explained that he is not aware of any meeting that has taken place. John Maxey stated that nothing has happened to date. NH to take as an action.  

NH explained that Peterborough City Council had been providing services to assist with the preparation of the Local Plan, however, that support was withdrawn at the end of March and since that time a decision has been made to continue the preparation of the emerging Local Plan under the existing and/or transitional arrangements.

NH stated that approval has been given to introduce additional posts in the Local Plan team which is currently made up of one officer and the advertisements for the positions are likely to be in place imminently. NH explained that along with that process and, given the difficulties currently being experienced to recruit Planning Officers of any type, there will be an additional exercise to obtain quotations from consultancies to progress the Local Plan.  

JM asked whether there was a revised timetable in place for the next stages and he added that he appreciates that the recruitment process is difficult, and, in his opinion, he would caution using consultants entirely, due to difficulties he has witnessed with other neighbouring Local Authorities during a recent appeal hearing. NH stated that he appreciates the cautionary words concerning the use of consultants, however, due to the difficulties with recruitment, it does need to be an option.

NH explained that the timetable has not been revised until the positions in the team have been filled and then a decision can be made with regards to what resources are in place in order to get to Regulation 19 stage. 

Councillor Mrs Laws stated that the shortage of planning staff is a national issue and it has been well publicised that there is a shortage of qualified planners across the country. She added that consideration has also been given with regards to sharing Policy Officers with other authorities where they have already completed a new Local Plan in their own authority.

HA questioned whether NH has tendered locally for new Planning Officers through a framework process. NH explained that he has had conversations with many local neighbouring authorities to ascertain whether they have capacity and they have not been able to assist. He added that he has had a number of conversations on the Local Authority framework and a process is underway to draw up a task list on which a firmer list of proposals.

JM stated that he appreciates that a timescale cannot be identified, however, is it the expectation that by the time officers have been recruited the realistic time frame will be in the new year and, therefore, being realistic it will not be before next summer that a Regulation 19 will be introduced. NH stated that this is going to be a likely timescale.

Councillor Mrs Laws explained that there are various policies coming forwards with regards to wildlife and nature on how to retain it. She stated that she has recently learnt that there are only two species of bees that actually require a colony and the rest operate independently. Councillor Mrs Laws made the point that there are several companies that are making bee bricks which can be just one brick costing under a pound which can be included in a new build or a renovation project. She explained that the bees nestle into the portholes and lay their eggs which then hatch and there is no danger to people. Councillor Mrs Laws stated that as part of the focus on helping and promoting nature, including improving the bee population, consideration is going to be given as to whether it should be included in the new Local Plan. She explained that KLWN DC have adopted the policy along with Brighton and Hove who have had a policy in place for some time and, therefore, it maybe something that agents and developers wish to consider going forward when submitting applications.

Councillor Mrs Laws explained that the population of swifts has dropped considerably this year due to the fact that their habitat has been removed. She explained that 70% of the waste material from the china clay pits in Cornwall could be made into bricks and included in the eaves of properties which would attract the swift population with a cost of implication of 75 -80 pence per brick. Councillor Mrs Laws stated that swift population is in significant decline and they are likely to become not only a protected species but also classified as at risk.

JM stated that there a number of environmental obligations which are going to fall on developers over the next few months and years and he asked whether the measures that Councillor Mrs Laws has made reference to will count towards biodiversity net gain because if they do, in his opinion, they would be easy wins for a developer which they may be happy to incorporate, but if they are not because of the way biodiversity net gain is measured in terms of width of lengths of hedges or areas and bits of land in most cases, he would anticipate that there will be more resistance. JM stated that he would require some clarity on how the scheme would fit into the biodiversity net gain matrices and if it does, in his opinion, he can see it working very well for agents and developers as it does not add much costs and does not take up any more space.

DW made the point that he applauds what Councillor Mrs Laws is trying to do and it is something that he has already started to implement in some of his properties and it is something that he will continue to do so with any future developments.

Councillor Mrs Laws stated that she will come back and provide further information,  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.

NH explained that he has just been advised that the legislative process has commenced with regards to fee increases and fees will increase by 25% across the board but majors are due to increase by 35%. He added that he recognises that will be a concern for agents and developers and he also advised that the provision of a ‘free go’ is going to be removed but there will be a transitional arrangement in place so that those applications which have already been decided can still take advantage of the ‘free go’ up to the available time limit. NH stated that the fees are due to be increasing in line with inflation and the increases are going to be capped at 10% every April from 2025 onwards and then hopefully that will remove the need for periodic jumps in planning fees. He added that under the proposals the planning guarantee is going to be tightened for non-major applications so that refunds can be sought after 16 weeks, provided that no extension of time has been agreed. NH stated that there is no update on the performance requirements that councils have to achieve other than the 16-week policy and he explained that he had previously advised members of the forum that it had been reported in the consultation that the Government was likely to make councils work harder for the fee increase, however, there has been no further update concerning that.

JM asked for the date of implementation of the increase and NH explained that information is yet to be known, but, in his opinion, it could be May or June. HA stated that latest date she has been made aware of is 1 April, but that could be subject to change.

DB asked whether the increase can be ringfenced and NH stated that he has not been made aware of that option. DB stated that, whilst the council are going to receive more money, it will not be dedicated to employing more officers. NH stated that over a period of time there has been a number of projects undertaken to ascertain whether there is any particular science in local authorities being able to be self-financing in terms of their planning services and by increasing the planning fees it does help, however, at the same time there needs to be efficiencies which can be driven through the system to ensure that the greater income received is not used to pay for weak and expensive processes and he added that a lot is dependent of the application profile that the local authority receives.

NH stated that with regards to biodiversity net gain, the Government have announced that from January 2024 it will go live, but for small sites and for the strategic national projects the go live date is anticipated as 24 April for the small sites and 2025 for the national infrastructure projects.

GS asked what conversations have taken place with potential parties who are due to provide off site credits  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

NH stated that the validation backlog is now at 5 weeks, and explained that the validation backlog can be tracked.

Since April 2023- performance figures are

Majors – 90%

Minors  - 58%

Others  - 86%

He explained that the Government’s 24 month rolling performance period and for majors the figures are as follows:.

Majors  - 81% of decisions on time against a threshold of 60%, but non majors are 72% and that figure is very close to the 70% designation threshold.

NH stated that the concern over the non-major performance has been shared with members since the Spring and agreement has been sought to include additional resources in place to assist going forward.

Councillor Mrs Laws stated that whilst it is disappointing news, Fenland is not the only council and there will be several authorities that will fall below that threshold. She made the point that the Inspectorate and Government are going to have tough times ahead through the lack of qualified staff available.

PH stated that he would like to provide positive feedback as he has had a very good experience with officers in ensuring an application and approval was issued on the determination date.

JM stated that the backlog for validation he finds worrying when the backlog for most other local authorities that he deals with is reducing and he asked whether there were issues recruiting validation staff too?

NH stated that one of the Technical Team has gone on maternity leave and as part of the authorisations that have been received to tackle the issue of the poor performance in relation to non-major applications, it has been agreed that some temporary resource can be implemented through agency cover in the validation team. He added that with regards to validation, an improvement programme has been running for the past six months which meant that the team have also been involved with mapping the workflows and work processes that they are using, including auditing the ICT system to see where better use can be made of it and this has all been undertaken alongside the day-to-day job.

Councillor Mrs Laws stated that the Transformation Team are reviewing planning processes and have been doing so for the last 6 months. She explained that a piece of equipment has been purchased to assist with processes which will help enormously and provide support to the Technical Services Team.

Councillor Mrs Laws reiterated that it would help if Agents and Developers submitted their applications so that they were right first time and will help the validation staff and agents. She added that since the Council gave a presentation to agents and developers regarding the validation process very little has changed, and applications are still being received in an incomplete state.  

NH gave an update concerning starters and leavers in the Planning Team. He highlighted that Mark Russell has joined that team from Capita and he is a Principal Planning Officer helping to support Sheila Black and David Rowen.

NH advised the forum that he would also be leaving the Council at some point in December and his post will be advertised shortly.

Councillor Mrs Laws thanked NH for all of his support, advice, and guidance she has given him over the years.

NH explained the various tasks which have been implemented as part of the transformation project work. He added that there is due to be an installation of a new mapping system which will be integrated with the back-office system in order that consultations will be automatically pulled off of the GIS system into the back-office system, rather than having to be actioned manually.

Councillor Mrs Laws stated that some of the transformation work will save a great deal of officer time going forward. She explained that a great deal of investment of both time and money has been spent to bring the validation team up to date in order to assist applicants, agents and staff.

NH explained that the Council has received two tranches of funding to assist with the work involved with biodiversity net gain. £5.500 to cover 22/23 and £27,000 to cover 23/24.

NH added that a bid has been submitted for Planning Capacity and Skills funding which is both for Development Management and also for the emerging Local Plan. He stated that he is sure that the applications for funding will be oversubscribed but the outcome will not be known for 2 months.

NH referred to the Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill and the Infrastructure Levy and advised that there are some revisions to the bill being proposed and they all appear to be with regards to affordable housing and the ability for local authorities to apply viability to the intended levy process. He stated that the Secretary of State also has the power through the regulations to disapply the infrastructure levy in a particular area where the levy is not delivering on its policy aims and, in those instances, the local authority can use Section 106 obligations to secure the appropriate level of planning gain. NH said there is the promise to learn from the experience of the introduction of the levy so if it does not work there is hope that the levy will be reviewed, changed and improved going forward. He added that he was concerned that the National system was going to be foisted upon the Council and from the experience when undertaking research for the emerging Local Plan, the viability position in Fenland is very challenging and the Council would not want to be in a position where development is being stifled by a national system which is put upon us and does not reflect local circumstances, whilst at the same time facing the consequences due to non-delivery.

JM stated that it must be welcome that they realise that there has to be flexibility in how its set and applied as it won’t work in the same way as the Council has chosen not to adopt CIL.    

Councillor Mrs Laws stated that she will ensure she can provide further information with regards to bees, bats and birds at the next meeting.

NH explained that a number of officers have been funded to progress with their planning education and Dannielle Brooke has undertaken her Masters qualification and as part of it, her dissertation was written on the quality of open spaces. She has been successful in obtaining two awards for her dissertation with the most recent one being awarded to her at the National Awards in Glasgow, and she is a real credit to the team.

PH asked if biodiversity net gain can be added as a future agenda item once further guidance has been issued.

JM asked whether Dannielle would be able to provide a short presentation to the forum as a learning opportunity for the members. NH agreed to approach DB.

JM questioned whether the new Chair of the forum would be NH replacement. NH agreed to give it some thought.