At this month’s meeting of Bridgend Council’s Planning Committee, officers were set to update committee members on the current state of the council’s planning department (pdf).
BCBC’s Planning & Development Group is responsible for managing planning applications, policies and strategies. They’re also responsible for building control and transport strategy, as well as planning issues relating to the road network (such as adopting highways and issuing traffic orders).
Issues with recruiting qualified staff; officers handling 70 cases each
The recruitment of experienced staff has become a serious problem. There are currently 17 unfilled vacancies in the group, and BCBC has become increasingly reliant on agency staff and external consultants.
It’s also placing pressure on individual planning officers, with each officer currently handling 70 cases each.
However, one positive effect of this is the number of internal promotion opportunities for junior staff, who are supported to fill senior roles.
New laws introduced following the Grenfell Tower disaster mean the council’s building control inspectors (all four of them) need to be registered and certified with the Health & Safety Executive’s Building Safety Regulator. To do this they need to prove they’re competent through a series of tests.
There are currently only 60 registered building inspectors in the whole of Wales. A lot of building control work is undertaken by private sector-approved inspectors. They can undercut council fees yet are not required to undertake certain inspections required by law.
BCBC’s planning department “has not been fully funded since 2023”
Another positive development on the staffing front is the recent appointment of a dedicated officer to manage and monitor Section 106 agreements (brought up at June’s full council meeting).
Also, good progress has been made in digitising old planning records, which will eventually be available online.
The planning group has become increasingly reliant on fee income to fund its work and the group has “not been fully funded since 2023”. This fee income often changes from year to year. Meanwhile, surpluses have often been spent elsewhere instead of on planning services.
The Welsh Government are considering setting planning fees nationally and ringfencing surpluses to be spent on planning services.
