Stafford Councillor raises concerns about planning and enforcement case backlog
A community leader has voiced concerns that “easy win” planning enforcement cases are being prioritised by Stafford Borough Council, leading to frustration for residents.
Councillor Scott Spencer, who represents the Gnosall and Woodseaves ward, has questioned the authority’s approach to dealing with the long-running backlog of planning applications and cases.
The councillor who oversees the planning department said improvements were being made in the department however.
In May, cabinet members agreed to spend an extra £234,000 on agency staff and consultancy support while work to improve the planning service was carried out.
In a question raised at the latest Economic Development and Planning Scrutiny Committee meeting, Councillor Spencer said: “There are significant backlogs in the planning and enforcement departments.
"Enforcement appears to be being conducted on a cherry picked ‘easy win’ basis rather than on a case-by-case basis.
“As we know, the planning department is severely in backlog. I have personally been waiting for close to two years for a call in to come to committee.
“I am aware that the planning and enforcement departments have had a number of people leave their posts or on long term leave.
Additionally, the ability to recruit to the borough has, due to various factors, not been successful at this time.
“Residents and parish councils within my ward are becoming increasingly frustrated and disillusioned with the borough council on matters of planning and enforcement.
Issues are going unanswered, resulting in adverse impacts upon residents and the local environment.
“The borough is spending significant amounts of money on acquiring various buildings within Stafford with associated planned schemes progressing, whereas residents are unable to complete or enforce building related issues that matter to them due to the severe backlog in the system.
"Can we funnel some of the money held in reserve towards bringing in additional contractors to enable both the planning and enforcement departments of the borough to be able to work effectively and clear the backlog?”
Councillor Ant Reid, cabinet member for economic development and planning, told Councillor Spencer he was right to call the issue out.
He said: “The situation with the planning backlog is serious, is ongoing, and is a key reason for the new improvement plan recently approved by cabinet and now being implemented.
“Yes there was better responsiveness to some types of applications; simpler applications that did not require much external body consultations could be handled rapidly and these were channelled via an outsourcing arrangement to ensure our officers could focus on the more difficult cases.
"It is often the need to consult others that has caused delays, and handling this is a key factor in bringing the backload down further.
“However, the team do not ‘cherry-pick’ easy cases; rather they balance the workload of simpler cases against the ones that need more detailed evidence so that the overall throughput is reasonable.
"On enforcement, we have started the changes already.
“We have leveraged our arrangement with Cannock Chase to share their enforcement team lead and we have instituted a new cross-team approach to enforcement on complex cases.
"Recruitment has not been as successful as with the planning team however as there is a national shortage in this function and we need to attract more candidates to our vacancies.
“I want to take a moment to recognise the major achievements so far in the planning team, all of it led by the planning team themselves with my support.
"When we took over administration of the council (in May 2023) the backlog was over 1,000 and it is less than half that today.
“The team immediately made arrangements to bring in additional contractors alongside other arrangements and with the support of all cabinet parties, we did indeed fund this extra cost using planning reserves.
It is vital that we did this as excessive planning backlogs are unacceptable and our planning team needed this support to handle the short-term extra workload.
“The team now tell me they need to reduce the average time it takes to handle each case, they have planned the changes for how to handle this, and are implementing this new improvement plan in the summer.
"Also, recruitment has occurred already and we are pleased with our new team members.”
