Decision details

A recent review has discovered that whilst customer feedback is good, we are not working as efficiently as we could and we may not be recouping all our costs in respect of offering this enhanced service.

The Cabinet Member agrees that:

1.  The way PPAs are paid for can change from monthly by invoice during the life of the PPA to an up-front charge with the introduction of a PPA fee schedule based on the scale and scope of development

2.  All relevant consulted officers as determined by the planning officer will now be included in PPAs to ensure PPAs are consistent with other applications and that B&NES has the best chance of being able to deliver a high quality response within the agreed timescales

Clear to customers what will be paid in advance with no unexpected additional invoices, potentially making it easier to market the PPA service to our customers.  Flexibility of being able to negotiate PPAs separately (and pay in separately) for each of the 3 stages of development (pre-app, app, post-app).  Certainty of deadlines for customers because all consultee departments will be included automatically.

The process could stay as it is, however, given the number of inefficiencies with the current process, not changing is a great risk because there are no resources within the department to administer the process once the Finance Officer retires.  The process could revert to time recording in Uniform as originally set up 4 years ago, however this was less successful than the current process because some consulted teams were not on Uniform (and are still not on Uniform).  The PPA service could be stopped altogether, and this may please some, however developers who use the service have been very complimentary and the income we receive ensures that the true cost of delivering the planning process can be more realistically covered.