North Yorkshire Council is meeting national targets for dealing with planning applications despite not having enough planning officers, councillors have been told.
Members of North Yorkshire Council’s executive committee heard this week that the department was 15 members short amid a national shortage of qualified staff.
A report on the council’s performance during the first quarter of the financial year showed the authority was completing 77.2 per cent of major planning applications within the target time against a statutory target of 60 per cent.
In the same period, the council dealt with 78.28 per cent of minor applications within the required time.
Major planning applications should be decided within 13 weeks, or 16 weeks if an environmental impact assessment is required.
Minor applications should be determined within eight weeks.
The meeting was told that delays within the planning process were a major source of frustration for councillors who were often asked to chase applications by residents.
In response, Mark Crane, executive member for open to business, said: “You will be aware we are still a significant number of planners down and we are not alone in that.
“I think every adjacent authority has a shortage of planners as well.
“The targets are government set and we are adhering to them and we are exceeding them, although we are planners down, so clearly things are not so easy.”
Cllr Crane added: “The other thing I would say is that when somebody puts in a planning application and six weeks later gets the result, they don’t generally write to their local councillor.
“The only time you hear from somebody about planning is when something’s gone wrong.”
The meeting heard that the council was making efforts to improve its enforcement action taken against breaches of planning rules.
Cllr Crane said enforcement had not been a high priority for planning staff in some areas of the county.
He added: “We have taken those areas on and we have done some very good work there.
“Of course, where people become aware that suddenly we are taking enforcement action, more cases come in.
“So we’ve seen a significant rise in cases in two previous areas. I won’t name them, but one of them is very close to the sea.”
Councillor Heather Phillips, executive member for corporate services, told the meeting the council dealt with around 4,700 applications last year.
She added: “I think the volume of discontent is very small.
“As Councillor Crane has stated, people only come to us when they’re really disappointed or get the wrong answer as far as they’re concerned.
“If we’re 15 planners down, then we are going to have issues.”
The meeting was told that the council was introducing a new computer system to improve its planning service.
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