Town and parish councils are going to have to pay more towards stopping Isle of Wight developers and others breaking planning rules.
Meanwhile, the Isle of Wight council will step back on policing the finer details and concentrate on its core planning responsibilities as a new enforcement strategy is approved.
Heavy workload
County Hall says it has struggled to close complaints about planning breaches recently, due to not having enough staff and an increase in caseloads.
The Isle of Wight council was told to look at its planning enforcement strategy after a peer review by the Local Government Association.
It also said town and parish councils’ expectations of planning enforcement were not being met.
1,253 new enforcement cases opened since 2018
A total of 1,253 new enforcement cases have been opened since 2018, with 1,234 of those closed.
Speaking at cabinet last week, Cllr Debbie Andre said planning enforcement was a high priority for a lot of wards across the Island and encouraging collaboration is important with town, parish and community councils who know where the troubles are.
Key priorities
The key priorities officers will now respond to Islandwide, include incidents which cause significant or irreparable harm to listed buildings, protected landscapes or protected trees.
They will also investigate other issues outside those priorities when resources allow it but there is no cash to expand enforcement resources.
Locally funded
If a town, parish or community council want local priorities dealt with, they will fund further capacity and enforcement could become proactive, instead of the typical reactive response.
The approach has been trialled in Newport and Carisbrooke, and the Isle of Wight council has said it is considered to be positive and successful.
A more collaborative approach
The authority says it is not about passing the enforcement responsibilities to local councils, but introducing a more collaborative approach.
It is also the council’s intention to publish real-time performance statistics regarding how long investigations are taking.
The strategy also sets out what is or is not a breach of planning and a step-by-step guide to planning enforcement investigations.
This article is from the BBC’s LDRS (Local Democracy Reporter Service) scheme, which News OnTheWight is taking part in. Some alterations and additions may have been made by OnTheWight. Ed
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