Planning officers failing to meet their targets

Published in the Guernsey Press on Friday 16 February 2024

Numbers are improving, back towards performance pre-Covid lockdowns, but the States has no intentions to restart publishing performance against targets.

The Development & Planning Authority’s targets are that 80% of planning decisions be issued within eight weeks and 90% within 13 weeks.

Planning director Jim Rowles told the Guernsey Press the current position on processing applications.

‘Over the last three months, 322 planning applications were decided, with 67% of decisions issued in eight weeks and 81% in 13 weeks,’ he said.

‘This compares with 387 applications in the same period in the previous year, with 53% of decisions issued in eight weeks and 74.8% in 13 weeks.’

At the start of the pandemic, decisions on planning applications slowed due to issues with submitting and processing applications online.

The last online update was for April to October 2020, stating only 29% of decisions were made within eight weeks and 67% within 13 weeks. This was a drop from 63% and 83% respectively before the pandemic.

It is no longer possible to keep track of planning waiting times.

Mr Rowles said there were no plans to start publishing the data again.

It was regularly updated online between 2009 and 2020.

‘We continuously monitor our performance against our published targets and work closely with professional agents to ensure that we process applications in an efficient manner,’ he said.

‘Having published performance figures in previous years, we received clear feedback from agents that these broad figures were not considered helpful, which is why we did not reinstate them following Covid.'

Comments in planning reports have show that more complicated or controversial plans are often being deferred to allow applicants to amend their applications to comply with planning guidance.

While this means these applications are more likely to be approved, it results in a longer wait time, as architects and applicants amend plans which then have to be looked at by planners again.

This does also mean that applicants do not have to pay another application fee.

Last year Development & Planning Authority president Victoria Oliver said the committee was seeing high numbers of planning and building control applications, which she said was an indication of a strong economy.

‘Planning decision speeds have improved over recent months with successful recruitment, and application determination times are in line with our targets of eight and 13 weeks,' she said.