Item 7 - Appendix 1
West Dunbartonshire Council · 6 December 2023
Back to Planning Committee — 6 December 2023 and its agenda
Text extracted from the council's PDF. Layout and reading order may differ from the original.
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Scottish Ministers, special advisers and the Permanent Secretary are covered by the terms of the Lobbying (Scotland) Act 2016. See www.lobbying.scot St Andrew’s House, Regent Road, Edinburgh EH1 3DG www.gov.scot Minister for Local Government Empowerment and Planning Ministear airson Cumhachdachadh is Dealbhachadh Riaghaltas Ionadail Joe FitzPatrick MSP Joe Mac Giolla Phádraig BPA T: 0300 244 4000 E: scottish.ministers@gov.scot Peter Hessett Chief Executive West Dunbartonshire Council ___ 20 October 2023 Dear Peter Hessett, I am pleased to enclose feedback on your authority’s twelfth Planning Performance Framework (PPF) Report, for the period April 2022 to March 2023. Across the country, performance against the key markers continues to be stable and there has been little variation in the overall total of green, amber and red markings awarded this reporting period compared with previous periods. It is clear that each of you continue to put in considerable effort to ensuring our planning system continues to run efficiently. I have been particularly pleased to see there has been a marked improvement on speed of determination for major applications across some authorities. Resourcing remains a key priority which I will continue to discuss with the High Level Group on Planning Performance, which I jointly chair with COSLA. I also have asked officials to bring different parties together to talk about resourcing in the autumn, to identify practical solutions. We need options that work for all sectors, and I think it would be really beneficial to discuss a variety of issues including full cost recovery, the local setting of fees, charges for additional services and approaches which could enable authorities to access the skills and expertise at the time they require. Finally, I am delighted that we have recently announced the appointment of the National Planning Improvement Champion (NPIC), Craig McLaren, who took up this new post in early September. Craig will play a pivotal role in supporting improvement and will also be looking at how we can improve the way we measure and assess the performance of the planning system in the future. If you would like to discuss any of the markings awarded below, please contact us at chief.planner@gov.scot and a member of the team will be happy to discuss them with you. ITEM 7 - APPENDIX 1
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Scottish Ministers, special advisers and the Permanent Secretary are covered by the terms of the Lobbying (Scotland) Act 2016. See www.lobbying.scot St Andrew’s House, Regent Road, Edinburgh EH1 3DG www.gov.scot JOE FITZPATRICK CC: Pamela Clifford, Planning, Building Standards and Environmental Health Manager
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PERFORMANCE MARKERS REPORT 2022-23 Name of planning authority: West Dunbartonshire Council The High Level Group on Performance agreed a set of performance markers. We have assessed your report against those markers to give an indication of priority areas for improvement action. The high level group will monitor and evaluate how the key markers have been reported and the value which they have added. The Red, Amber, Green ratings are based on the evidence provided within the PPF reports. Where no information or insufficient evidence has been provided, a ‘red’ marking has been allocated. No. Performance Marker RAG rating Comments 1 Decision-making: continuous reduction of average timescales for all development categories [Q1 - Q4] Amber Major Applications Your average timescale is 13.4 weeks which is slower than the previous year but faster than the Scottish average of 39.5 weeks as well as within the statutory timescale. RAG = Green Local (Non-Householder) Applications Your average timescale is 13.1 weeks which is slower than the previous year but faster than the Scottish average of 14.4 weeks. RAG = Amber Householder Applications Your average timescale is 9.8 weeks which is slower than the previous year and slower than the Scottish average of 8.9 weeks. RAG = Red Overall RAG = Amber 2 Processing agreements: • offer to all prospective applicants for major development planning applications; and • availability publicised on website Green It is noted that instead of offering processing agreements you offer a pre-application framework process instead which is used for major or more complex developments. The framework provides a pre-application service which is different to your general pre-application service. RAG = Green You have provided a link in your PPF which shows this process highlighted and publicised on your website. RAG = Green Overall RAG = Green 3 Early collaboration with applicants and consultees • availability and promotion of pre-application discussions for all prospective applications; and • clear and proportionate requests for supporting information Green You continue to offer pre-application discussions for all applications, either general pre-application advice service for smaller and less complex proposals or through the pre- application framework for larger and complex proposals. RAG = Green Your pre-application service sets out what supporting information is required at each stage of the process. RAG = Green Overall RAG = Green 4 Legal agreements: conclude (or reconsider) applications after resolving to grant permission reducing number of live applications more than 6 months after resolution to grant (from last reporting period) Green Your average timescale for applications with legal agreement is 12.4 weeks which is faster than the Scottish average of 41.1 weeks. Your average is based on one application and you did not determine any applications in the previous reporting period for comparison. 5 Enforcement charter updated / re- published within last 2 years Green Your enforcement charter was updated in December which is within the last 2 years.
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6 Continuous improvement: • progress ambitious and relevant service improvement commitments identified through PPF report Green You completed 3 out of 10 improvement commitments with a further 2 partially completed with elements ongoing, a further 3 ongoing and 2 with limited progress. You have identified a further 10 commitments for the next reporting year and provided clear reasoning and benefit in carrying out each one. 7 Local development plan less than 5 years since adoption Red Your LDP is over 5 years old having been adopted in 2010. It is noted however that you were due to adopt your next LDP in 2020 but that has been subsequently delayed and now formally will not to be adopted due to Scottish Ministers Direction. 8 Development plan scheme – next LDP: • project planned and expected to be delivered to planned timescale Green You have set out that you expect to start work on a new LDP in the coming reporting period and this will be set out in a future Development Plan Scheme. 9 & 10 LDP Engagement • stakeholders including Elected Members, industry, agencies, the public and Scottish Government are engaged appropriately through all key stages of development plan preparation. N/A You have not carried out any LDP engagement as you await to start preparation on your new LDP in the coming reporting period. 11 Policy Advice • Production of relevant and up to date policy advice Green You have continued to update your supplementary guidance including Green Network and Green Infrastructure as well as producing draft guidance documents that will be consulted on during the next reporting period. 12 Corporate working across services to improve outputs and services for customer benefit (for example: protocols; joined-up services; single contact arrangements; joint pre-application advice) Green You have highlighted clearly how you undertake corporate working across services in Case Study 9. You have set out how you are involved in a cross-service group which involves representatives from Regeneration, Asset Management and Transport. You also work closely with Housing collegues on policy and delivery issues such as the Local Housing Strategy. 13 Sharing good practice, skills and knowledge between authorities Green You have indicated how you continue to share good practice between authorities including being the Senior Vice Chair of the HOPS Executive as well as being an active member in various other sub-committees.You have also undertaken PPF peer review exercise with Aberdeen City Council as well as continuing to be actively involved in the ClydePlan and Glasgow and Clyde Valley Housing Market Partnership which involves 8 authorities across the Glasgow Region. 14 Stalled sites / legacy cases: conclusion or withdrawal of old planning applications and reducing number of live applications more than one year old Green You have cleared 4 cases during the reporting period, 1 less than last year. The number of cases remaining is 7 which is the same as last year. 15 Developer contributions: clear and proportionate expectations • set out in development plan (and/or emerging plan); and • in pre-application discussions Amber You set out information relating to developer contributions in supplementary guidance including the new guidance on Green Infrastructure and Network. RAG = Green It is not clear from your report how developer contributions are set out during the the pre-application stage. RAG = Red Overall RAG = Amber
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WEST DUNBARTONSHIRE COUNCIL Performance against Key Markers Marker 13-14 14-15 15-16 16-17 17-18 18-19 19-20 20-21 21-22 22-23 1 Decision making timescales 2 Processing agreements 3 Early collaboration 4 Legal agreements 5 Enforcement charter 6 Continuous improvement 7 Local development plan 8 Development plan scheme 9 & 10 LDP Engagement N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A 11 Regular and proportionate advice to support applications 12 Corporate working across services 13 Sharing good practice, skills and knowledge 14 Stalled sites/legacy cases 15 Developer contributions Overall Markings (total numbers for red, amber and green) 2012-13 1 6 6 2013-14 1 2 10 2014-15 2 2 9 2015-16 1 5 7 2016-17 1 4 10 2017-18 1 5 9 2018-19 2 3 8 2019-20 2 3 8 2020-21 1 3 9 2021-22 1 0 13 2022-23 1 2 10 Decision Making Timescales (weeks) 13-14 14-15 15-16 16-17 17-18 18-19 19-20 20-21 21-22 22-23 2022-23 Scottish Average Major Development 32.4 19.8 24.6 23.4 18.3 28.5 14.8 11.2 9.6 13.4 39.5 Local (Non- Householder) Development 15.2 10.5 10.7 10.0 11.8 14.4 16.0 12.6 13.0 13.1 14.4 Householder Development 7.5 6.8 7.3 6.8 7.0 8.6 12.7 9.6 8.6 9.8 8.9