Damning report reveals staff cuts left Calderdale Council planning department unable to cope

For the past 12 months Calderdale councillors’ in-boxes have been filled with complaints about the service, some have asked questions about the situation at full council, and following a peer review an action plan will be put in place to remedy the situation.

This has some financial implications with proposals which will see recruitment of 6.25 (full or part time) staff costing £300,000 plus a one-off £311,000 for IT software which will help planning deal with issues more efficiently to deal with the problems – if they are approved by the full council when it meets on February 28 to settle the authority’s budget for 2022-23.

The action plan, which should be drawn up by June, must also set “clear, ambitious but achievable” targets over a three-year period and these will be closely monitored.

Scrutiny board councillors said some people wishing to put in planning applications had been waiting a year to speak to a planning officer, enforcement was ineffective and cases were piling up on staff’s desks with workloads described by a new department head as “unreasonable by any measure.”

Cabinet member for Regeneration and Strategy, Coun Jane Scullion (Lab, Luddenden Foot) told councillors budget decisions over the last six or seven years had reduced staffing, and with personnel also having to work on the Local Plan and in the last two years a Government decision to end stamp duty on properties below a certain value – a “holiday” ended last September – leading to increased applications, the result was a “perfect storm”, she said.

Place Scrutiny Board Chair, Coun Peter Caffrey (Con, Northowram and Shelf) said something had to be done.

“It is a pretty damning report – how many times in the last couple of years have members stood up and complained bitterly about planning – why have we waited so long?” he said.

The structural changes must be made as well as financial resources as just throwing money at the problem alone would not be enough, he said.

Coun Scullion said she did not want to make excuses, the pandemic had brought the issues into focus and it was to a degree a case of fixing one thing at a time.

The council’s new Director of Regeneration and Strategy, Shelagh O’Neill, had said the underlying structural problems needed to be addressed.

The peer review team said they found a planning service with many excellent professional officers committed to providing a good service but their current workload and the way it was being managed prevented them from delivering such a service – finding budgetary savings and the consequent limitations on filling vacancies had clearly had an impact, said the report.

Coun Scullion said: “It is important to note we do have some fantastic, hard-working officers within the planning service.

“They have been pressed and harried from pillar to post with pressure of work but have given commitment to the council in very difficult circumstances.”

Coun Victoria Porritt (Lab, Elland), Chair of the Planning Committee, said: “I am glad we are now in a position where we can put measures in place to make sure people are coping – what coping should feel like rather than constant, ongoing ‘fire fighting’.”

She hoped ward members would have a bigger role to play in planning in the future.

Ms O’Neill said the department’s staff workloads were “unreasonable by any measure” and certainly when compared to other authorities.

The proposed additional help would see the service performing much better at the end of the plan and a service “fit for purpose” would result, she said.

Planning lead Richard Seaman warned the process would be like turning round an oil tanker because of the backlog of work but in 12 months the department could reach a sustainable position.

Coun Paul Bellenger (Lib Dem, Greetland and Stainland) said enforcement had been weak for years and some people who were wanting to submit plans had been waiting for up to a year to have a conversation with a planning officer.

“A lot of them don’t know the ins and outs of how planning works and wanted to speak to somebody,” he said, adding news of potential resources was “music to my ears.”

Coun Regan Dickenson (Con, Rastrick) said an application for a development in his ward submitted on July 1 had still not been validated by December and officers had more than 100 cases on their desks at the moment.

The situation caused feelings of frustration and sympathy for the case workers, he said.

Coun Dave Young (Lab, Calder) said it had become clear the department had been “grossly underfunded” but now there was a way to fix it with funding to make it a first class service.

“I always thought enforcement was a weak link but they have been really underfunded for years, I don’t know how the people left managed to do it,” he said.

Responding to a question from Coun Angie Gallagher (Lab, Elland), who asked if the seriousness of the situation had been reported, Mr Seaman said around two years ago was the point where the department had been stretched too far.

Coun Steven Leigh (Con, Ryburn) said he believed the draft Local Plan itself was one of the root causes of the problem because Mr Seaman and members of his team had been called away arguing difficult concepts and arrangements against “vociferous opposition”.

He criticised ruling Labour group members who had not appeared at hearings into the plan, officers then having to argue the case.

Coun Leigh said he believed some of the staff who had left the department or retired may have been down to the stress they were under.

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