Islanders should have ‘a great level of confidence’ in the Isle of Wight Council’s planning department, a recent report has said.
It is after figures were revealed which highlighted the council’s quality of decision-making for planning applications.
‘Very good standard’
National monitoring statistics of the Island’s planning authority show it has a ‘very good standard’ for non-major and major developments.
The council says it is above the national average and ‘comfortably clear’ of any thresholds which would see the council assessed for under-performance.
Officers thanked for work
The report was presented to the council’s planning committee on Tuesday, where members thanked the officers for their work.
Following decisions made by the Isle of Wight Council, 54 plans were appealed to the Planning Inspectorate between April 2022 and March 2023.
Half the number of appeals
During the same time, the government body determined 36 appeals were made against the council after it refused planning permission, compared to 65 in the previous year.
Of those 36, 11 were allowed (30.6 per cent) so the projects were able to go ahead.
Small number of decisions affects overall average
The figures are notably higher compared to last year, the authority says, — when only 14 per cent of cases were allowed — but it also says due to the relatively low number of decisions issued, the outcome of a small number of decisions can notably affect the overall average.
The Planning Inspectorate has recognised it has a backlog of cases but the figures are broadly comparable to previous years when between 39 and 44 decisions were issued.
Planning committee performance
The performance of the planning committee was also analysed in the report — with ten out of 14 applications determined in line with the officers’ recommendation.
Two of the 36 appeals were against decisions made by the committee, and in both cases, they went against the officers’ recommendations.
The Planning Inspectorate overturned both decisions.
The report says in light of the statistics, there should be a great level of confidence in the quality of the decision-making of the local planning authority.
Drew: Great to see the statistics
Chair of the planning committee, Cllr Warren Drew, said the council should have full confidence in what the planning authority was doing and it was great to see the statistics.
Brodie: Absolute confidence in officers
Cllr Geoff Brodie said the report entirely reassures him and underlines the good performance of officers, confirming he had absolute confidence in them.
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
Image: Daniel McCullough under CC BY 2.0
