The past year has seen a large increase in the number of applications Development Control has to administer. This increase has been matched by a severe staff shortage. The national market for planning officers is such that it is proving to be extremely difficult to recruit and retain the necessary numbers of staff to handle the increase in applications.

The report circulated to all the Parish & Town Councils indicates that the Development Control Unit at SDC is in the lowest quartile in the country for performance when measured by the speed with which they process applications. Steve Thorne, the Head of Development Services, and Cllr John Noeken, the Cabinet member for Planning & Economic Development stressed that there are no easy fixes to this problem. Improving performance will involve the co- operation of parishes, councillors and officers.

However, it is important not to create a false impression of the scale of this problem. In many other respects the unit is performing excellently when compared with other Councils across the country. In terms of the quality of the service provided and the level of public engagement the Council is performing in the top quartile in the country.

Improving performance will give SDC access to more government grants which can in turn be used to improve performance further. For example the unit will look into providing those parishes who do not have internet access with a fax machine. A new phone has been installed specifically for communication between the planning officers and parishes.

The new on-line planning portal is a huge leap forward and will speed up communication between Development Control and the Parishes. Contact Stephen Thorne 01772 434375.