Shake-up in planning enforcement for Cheshire East

Cheshire East Council is pressing ahead with a major shake-up of its planning enforcement strategy.

Cheshire East was told back in June 2012 that a review of the council's enforcement strategy was needed.

A working group is now recommending changes in standards and working practices.

A report to the Strategic Planning Board meeting yesterday (May 22nd) suggests the current system is too piecemeal.

Their draft report says: "the service should be encouraged and designed to operate as a single team working across the whole region" and that "a structure should be developed to provide clear decision making processes."

There has been concern that the planning enforcement team has not had to tell councillors formally how well they have been doing.

Now councillors could get a quarterly run-down of performance facts and figures that include:

• The number of complaints received
• The average time taken to respond to complaints.
• The average time taken to handle compaints
• The number of enforcement notices served
• The time taken to resolve cases
• The outcomes of enforcements
• How many cases are resolved without enforcement action.

The report adds: "Whilst the current driving force for the enforcement function since the service was formed in 2009 has been to meet targets set within the "Planning
Enforcement Protocol", the need for change has been recognised to ensure service delivery is considered fit for purpose."

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