Want to know the names of Waverley’s planning gurus? And, hear about the huge success they are NOW making of the council’s planning function…
And, according to the Planning Portfolio Holder, Cllr Liz Townsend, they are doing a damn fine job.
She told a meeting of Waverley Council that threats of Waverley’s planning function being taken by the government into ‘special measures’ had been lifted.
She said this was entirely due to Waverley’s planning team’s hard work and dedication, which she said after “a Herculean effort” had achieved and dealt with 97%, which was well above the 70% threshold for dealing with minor planning applications.
She said the government had confirmed this on the 4th of October.
Interesting.
Just days before Waverley and HM Govt go jointly into battle regarding Milford Golf Course.
It would do no good at all for HM Govt to be partnered with a body it had in preparation for special planning measures. So a united front can be displayed in the High Court. All friends together united.
Let’s see what happens after the 9th November.
MeaninglessMud
Nice conspiracy theory which assumes the left hand knows what the right hand is doing (in HMG?)
However from news reports 6 October:
“All nine councils previously at risk of being put into special measures have escaped intervention after improving their planning performance on non-major applications. Housing and planning minister Rachel Maclean has written to the chief executives of nine councils and one national park authority to lift the threat of official designation.
They include Calderdale MBC, Portsmouth City Council, Cotswold and Vale of White Horse DCs, Epsom & Ewell, Guildford BC, Hinckley & Bosworth, Pendle and Waverley BCs and the Peak District National Park Authority”
Probably the only system where speed of a decision is the sole performance measure. The quality of the decision has no relevance. Joseph Stalin had a similar approach in his 5 year plans for Russia’s development.
More education and training for Planning Members would help with the quality of decisions. Also having a backbone and not calling every little thing into a planning committee
Not surprised to hear all local authorities were spared. After all the local elections were in May so there is no longer any incentive for Michael Gove (or whoever is in charge of that department, I can’t keep up), cheered on by the local Waverley Conservatives – to bang on at every opportunity about this as an example of Waverley Coalition inefficiency. It was politically motivated. It didn’t work. Voters didn’t buy into it. Good result.
For the statistics to count they also have to issue decisions. There seems to be a lot of applications still in the system from over 6 months ago with no end in sight. I’m not sure its a hurcelean effort but more of a fix.