Wednesday 28 May 2014
Media Enquiry from Guernsey Press:
I was hoping to get an update on how things were going with the planners. Back in March the pre-application advice was suspended after a few of the staff left and I understand there have been some long waits for decisions on applications.
However, with more than 70 decided last week (according to the gov.gg list), I was wondering if things were going more smoothly.
So, have new staff been appointed (and how many planners are there deciding applications), how long have applications been delayed by due to the staff shortage, when should the backlog be cleared by and when should pre-application meetings restart again?
If you can get back to me by 4pm tomorrow, that would be great.
Environment Department Response:
To clarify, the planning pre-application advice service has not been suspended, although response times increased slightly over the last few weeks as higher priority was being given to dealing with formal planning applications.
The Environment Department has recently appointed two Planning Officers to replace existing staff within the Development Control team who are leaving and has also employed temporary assistance pending their arrival.
As a result, decision times for applications have not increased dramatically and the number of applications in-hand has reduced, with decisions on 71 planning applications issued in the last week.
Further Enquiry:
Thanks for the response. Can I check how many planners there are? The response was also not clear whether the staff had left or were leaving (and if they haven't left yet, why has there been delays?)
Environment Department Response:
One Planning Officer and one Senior Planning Officer working in Development Control have recently left the Department. A further Planning Officer working in Development Control will be leaving shortly.
When fully staffed, the Development Control team comprises six Planning Officers, two Senior Planning Officers and one Principal Planning Officer. The team deals with approximately 2,000 planning applications per year along with numerous pre-application enquiries, requests for advice, appeals and other related planning matters.
Contact Information:
Jim Rowles, Director of Planning
Environment Department
Tel: 717200
