Critical report released over Council planning functions

Audit Wales have released a critical report concerning Powys County Council's Planning Service.

The report, which was released today and reviewed the service in 2022, found several shortcomings.

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The review revealed that the council's planning service was weighed down by strategic, operational, and cultural weaknesses, which made it challenging to offer better services to members and staff.

Furthermore, it was concluded that the council was reacting to bad performance rather than creating a sustainable action plan to prevent poor performance by effectively managing the enforcement workload.

The investigation also outlined that the Planning Service lacked stability, had high staff turnover, poor communication, ineffective team meetings and thus did not provide effective learning and development opportunities for staff.

The report emphasised that in 2018-2019, the processing of applications took on avage 161.5 days, much worse than the Welsh average of 80.7 days, ranking 25th out of 25 local planning authorities.

Planning enforcement was under-prioritised, with investigations taking 304 days on average in quarter one of 2022-2023, according to the report. There was a lack of management and enforcement in the Planning Service, which could lead to illegal and dangerous builds in the area.

Powys County Council has set up a Service Improvement Board to address the findings following interim recommendations from the report. 

Cllr Jake Berriman, Cabinet Member for a Connected Powys, said:

"We full accept the findings of this review and I would personally like to thank the auditors for the way that they have carried out this extensive piece of work and for the very constructive way in which they have acknowledged the things that we do well and focussed on helping us to get better and improve the service we provide to applicants and to the people of Powys.

"A lot of Councillors, Community Councils and individuals speak to me regularly about planning, and I know from past experience that it is hard to please everyone all the time, but the auditors have helped confirm that we have room for improvement and I am completely committed to using this report to help put things right and to work towards having one of the most highly regarded planning services in Wales.

"We have excellent officers working as part of a dedicated and committed planning team, who will embrace the report in full. Working with the service improvement board that I chair, it is their efforts that will ensure we rapidly improve the service so that in 12 months' time, Audit Wales and service users will see a significant difference in our planning services.

"Our planning service plays an integral role in facilitating and delivering our Corporate Plan ambitions of a Stronger, Fairer, Greener Powys.

"The Audit Wales report provides a timely reminder of the strong and positive facilitating role that planning must play in supporting the people of Powys in having healthy and fulfilled, economically active lives, living in decent homes and part of resilient towns and villages. A Powys of sustainable communities supporting the recovery of our natural environment and cultural heritage.

"To do this effectively the management of development, including planning enforcement, needs to be more purposeful, integrated, timely and efficient, supported by new ICT systems which makes planning much more open, accessible, and responsive to the public.

"I very much hope that the planned improvements will assist us in regaining the public's confidence in our planning service.

"Officers have already made significant inroads into reducing the planning application and enforcement backlogs built up over Covid-19, as officers were moved to temporary new roles, and new dedicated enforcement roles have been created to give the service the focus it deserves.

"I will be monitoring the situation carefully and welcome feedback from officers and the public as we continue to move the service forward."

The Audit Wales report can be found by visiting https://audit.wales/sites/default/files/publications/powys_council_planning_service_review_english.pdf