A backlog of planning applications which have not been dealt with by Eden Council on time is putting jobs at risk, it has been claimed.
Debra Wicks (Con, Greystoke), who is deputy chairman of the district council’s planning committee, has raised fears for the future of Eden’s economic development following confirmation that more than 170 live applications have not been resolved within the statutory time limit.
“For the people that are waiting for their applications to be processed, it is costing them a lot of money,” she told the Herald.
“I like people to get a good service. At the end of the day decisions need to be made in a timely manner,” she said.
A call has been made for the district council’s planning committee to meet twice a month as part of a bid tackle the backlog of applications in the system, but Ms Wicks has been told the authority does not have the resources to process the applications and do the necessary paperwork for committee reports.
At last month’s planning committee meeting, questions were asked about the recent resignation of the senior planning officer and whether this would impact on key performance indicators and result in Eden going into special measures.
Nick Atkinson, Eden’s planning services development manager — who has now also given notice of his intention to leave — responded by saying that he could not comment on this with any certainty.
The council was looking to fill vacant posts, as it was important for the reputation and integrity of the authority for these positions to be adequately staffed, the meeting was told.
Ms Wicks said there needs to be a “strong focus” on the significant effect a failing planning system could have on the economic development of the area.
She said there was a risk of jobs being lost to the West Coast if businesses could not get planning approval for expansion in Eden.
“The last thing we want is an east-west economic divide,” said Ms Wicks.
Jonathan Davies, of Evolve Penrith, asked about the number of planning applications which had been submitted for consideration since the Lib Dem-led rainbow alliance took over the running of Eden Council in May, 2019, to October, this year.
He was told there were 173 live applications which were “out of time”.
Some of these were still the subject of negotiation and an extension may therefore be agreed.
William Patterson (Ind Alliance, Warcop), chairman of Eden’s planning committee, said: “Out of a total of 1,506 applications received since May, 2019, 1,407 had a planning decision made within the statutory period, including agreed extensions.”
He said the remainder had been dealt with outside the statutory time frame.
“The council’s approach is, where possible, to work with applicants to find acceptable planning solutions rather than to recommend refusal for applications that have the potential to be made acceptable,” he added.
“This approach usually results in a need to work on planning applications for longer periods. In such circumstances the council will negotiate an extension of time with applicants, as is standard practice across all local planning authorities.”
The statutory period to deal with applications is eight weeks for minor schemes and 13 weeks for major ones.
An Eden Council spokesman said: “The council’s planning function has recently received a positive independent review from the planning advisory service and continues to exceed government targets in regard to processing of planning applications.
“Staff turnover is a normal part of any organisation, and the council is actively increasing capacity in the planning department by adding and recruiting to new posts.”
Commenting on the staffing situation in the authority’s planning department, council leader Virginia Taylor denied that Eden was struggling to meet statutory obligations.
The Liberal Democrat leader said that the planning department was simply suffering from a national trend.
“There’s no disarray involved. There’s a problem with too many applications and too few staff to fill the jobs nationally.”
