Peak District planners could face Government action over poor turnaround figures

The authority is currently turning around less than 60 per cent of minor planning applications within an eight-week period – the national requirement is an average of 70 per cent over the course of two years.

In a meeting on Friday, November 11, members heard that if figures don’t improve soon the authority could find itself in ‘special measures’, meaning the Government will step in.

Head of planning Brian Taylor commented: “Currently we’ve seen some of that percentage drop to below 60 per cent and if that averages out over the whole two year period then you can get approached by the Government.”

He said if the situation continued, people could actually bypass the authority altogether and take applications straight to the Planning Inspectorate.

The park currently has a staff turnover rate of around 18 per cent, which is around double the normal amount, and is particularly struggling with a lack of trained planners.

Chief executive Phil Mulligan said recruitment was a ‘problem’, commenting: “Some of those are professional roles where we know other organisations are offering more competitive packages than we’re able to, where there are national shortages of certain skill types and that is a real challenge for us.

“We are working on various change programmes and we’ve got plans in place to try and address that.”

If the authority goes into special measures it will be given two weeks to explain why it was not hitting targets, after which it would work with the Planning Advisory Service.

“The important thing we would say is we’ve already flagged these issues,” Mr Taylor said.

“We’ve got some action plans emerging, we’ve got a service review happening and we’d be willing to work with the Planning Advisory Service.”