Planning & Sustainable

Development

Service Plan 2018-2022

June 2019 (version 1.11)

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Content:

1. Introduction

2. Where are we now?

3. Where do we want to be and why?

4. How are we going to get there?

5. How will we know when we get there?

6. What might stop us?

7. Appendix 1

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Introduction by Louise Wood, Service Director for Planning & Sustainable Development

“It is a privilege to lead the Planning and Sustainable Development Service we have a

crucial role in managing change and growth to sustainably meet the needs of residents

and businesses. I am committeed to ensuring that we work together to better outcomes for Cornwall.”

The Council’s commitment is to work with the people of Cornwall and use our resources wisely to protect and enhance our unique environment, create more

homes and jobs for our residents, and ensure everyone can live well and safely together. It achieves this by focussing on 5 key priorities (Healthy Cornwall, Homes for Cornwall, Green and Prosperous Cornwall, Connecting Cornwall, and

Democratic Cornwall) whilst adopting an agreed set of core values and aims when pursuing our business plan.

The Planning and Sustainable Development Service is in a unique position of being responsible for translating the vision of the Council into a spatial plan for

Cornwall and delivering this vision through facilitating all new development. This is not only through our planning functions but also through building control, land

charges and street naming. Ensuring that we have a 5 year land supply through an up-to-date Local Plan

means that we retain control over our housing policies and those being produced by our communities in their Neighbourhood Plans. It is essential that we find

ways to support proposals that have community support so that we can deliver the much needed homes to meet the needs of all our residents.

Improving the quality of development is critical. Fundamentally all new development in Cornwall should feel Cornish and be shaped by its history,

culture, landscape and, where relevant, its relationship to the sea. Development should not be stuck in the past or replicate poor quality, it should respond creatively and positively to its surroundings and deliver environmental growth.

The Building Control service should relentlessly ensure that we get a good standard of development that is safe, accessible and efficient.

We are faced with a number of big challenges which are becoming increasingly evident given the recent declaration of a climate change emergency as well as

implications of globalisation and digitisation, changing demographics of an ageing population, growing inequality and BREXIT. Planning has a key role to

play in managing this growth and change to get the best outcomes for our communities.

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Where are we now? We have the first part of our Local Plan (Strategic Policies 2016) and are nearing

the end of the Examination in Public for our Site Allocations Development Plan Document (DPD) which will make our plan complete. It is our responsibility to

make this vision happen and look forward to plan for future change.

We do this by working together with our Transport, Housing and Economic Development colleagues. Our role is through creating policy and guidance,

making decisions on planning and building regulation applications, unlocking barriers to delivery, coordinating infrastructure delivery, securing funding,

enforcing against breaches of regulations, assisting people with property purchases, naming new development, monitoring what is happening, helping our communities plan for their places and providing a good service to our customers.

The Service currently employs 294 staff (equating to 267.2 FTE). We provide our services through identifiable teams that have become efficient experts in their

area.

Development Management

•Area Teams

•Cornwall wide teams including:

•Enforcement

•Strategic applications

•Specialists - Historic Environment & Highways

Planning Policy

•Planning for future needs for Cornwall and supporting neighbourhood planning

•Supporting infrastructure delivery including S106 and CIL collection and spend

•Creating statutory and non statutory policy and guidance

•Promoting quality

•Intelligence and monitoring

Sustainable Growth & Innovation

•Facilitating Delivery

•Eco-Communities

•Project Lead

•Building Control

•Provide a link across the Economic Growth & Development Directorate

Development, Technical and Business Support (including: Land Charges; Building Control Support; Development Management Support;

Street Naming & Numbering and Street Gazetteer Management

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What we achieved in 2018/19

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How the service is structured

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Where do we want to be and why?

Cornwall has a 5 year land supply for housing which means that the policies in the Local and Neighbourhood Plans carry weight. Effective policies reduce the

appetite for speculative development. Overall we have seen an overall increase in the number of planning applications being submitted but a shift away from the types of planning applications that delivered high fees. We are also reliant on

income from building control and land charges. Land Charges are gearing up to take a proactive response to government changes to maintain income. Given the

current economic climate we anticipate that the reduction in income will remain for the foreseeable future. Our services will need to reflect this.

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Positively the Council is supporting the delivery of housing and jobs through its

Investment Programme and it is imperative that our Service supports this as well as ensuring that the private sector is supported to deliver allocated strategic

sites. We need to build on the success of the Liskeard Charrette and the masterplanning and place shaping work we are involved on in places such as

Penzance, Torpoint and Launceston. Neighbourhood planning necessitates a more localised approach to decision

making supplemented by a central core that undertakes the activities that are Cornwall wide.

A key focus of the Directorate is to work together and create a strong culture of empowerment and innovation. This is a key opportunity for ‘planning’ in its

widest context to sit at the heart of the directorate. This is particularly important as we begin to look forward beyond our current Local Plan to ensure that we

develop an ambitious spatial plan to manage change and growth. The 3 themes that customers stated in the residents’ survey, that they wanted

are reliability, convenience and trustworthiness which we must work towards.

In delivering this change our three basic objectives are to secure:

Quality development

A supportive community Engaged staff

Funding The service is largely funded through the income it raises through fees.

The service is also funded by the capital and investment development programmes that request our professional services by choice.

We also successfully bid for funding to support our work including:

Capacity funding to support largescale delivery from Ministry of

Housing, Communities & Local Government/Homes England

(MHCLG/HE)

Infrastructure funding such as Housing Infrastructure Fund (HIF)

Savings: The size of the workforce is intrinsically linked with customer satisfaction levels

and economic cycles. However to meet the Medium Term Budget Plan efficiency savings are required. This means we must constantly find ways of delivering the

services differently to reduce overall costs and increase productivity.

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Cornwall Council 2019/20 Budget Information Planning and Sustainable Development

Original Original Original Original

Budget Budget Budget Budget

2019/20 2020/21 2021/22 2022/23

£m £m £m £m

Employee Costs 9,994,272

Premises Costs 21,000

Transport Costs 198,000

Supplies & Services 326,628

Third Party Payments 5,228

Transfer Payments -

Internal Recharges 143,000

Gross Expenditure 10,688,128

Government Grants

-

Other Grants, Reimbursements & Contributions (310,971)

Customer & Client Receipts (9,781,906)

Income Recharges (849,251)

Total Income (10,942,128)

Interest payable and similar charges

Movement In Reserves Statement -

Net Expenditure (254,000) (178,000) (54,000) 238,000

Sub Service Analysis The Planning and Sustainable Development service can be broken down over the following sub services:

£m

Strategic Planning and Housing 0.998 Planning (1.252)

Total Planning and Sustainable Development (0.254) Service

Budgeted FTE numbers Strategic Planning and Housing 28.68 Planning 255.38

Total Planning and Sustainable Development 284.06

Service

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Workforce Planning:

As of February 2019 Service currently employs 294 staff - total FTE = 267.2

*Table produced April 2019

Grade Split across Service by Gender

Grades

Female

Male

% by Grade

Female Male

D 4 1 80% 20%

F 21 3 87.50% 12.50%

G 51 10 83.61% 16.39%

H 18 0 100% 0%

I 48 21 69.57% 30.43%

J 12 32 27.27% 72.73%

K 10 23 30.30% 69.70%

L 5 14 26.32% 73.68%

M 2 1 66.67% 33.33%

N 1 4 20% 80%

O 1 0 100% 0%

P 2 3 40% 60%

R 0 1 0% 100%

(SPOT) Apprentices 2 3 40% 60%

Grand Totals 293 100%

Proportion female : male

(%) 59.9 : 40.1

Proportion full time : part

time (%) 73.8 : 26.2

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To deliver the Council’s Business Plan and the Local Plan we need to adhere to

the principles of good workforce planning to have the ability to mobilise staff within the Service and wider Directorate depending on need and to grow our

people.

We realise there needs to be a change in the nature of how we work through accountability and responsibility at an individual level rather than through Managers by creating ‘Distributive Leadership’. This can be demonstrated by the

Area Team Trial within Development Management as a transformational project which resulted from the ‘Delivering the Cornwall Local Plan’ document.

We have identified the following workforce issues for the Service:

Ageing Workforce Growth and capacity building including upskilling existing resources

Progression/workforce development – “Grow your own” Utilise the coaching and mentoring network and skills to develop both

managers and staff

Retention of key staff Leadership development

Rebalancing the workforce to reflect the new workload Greater delegation in decision making

The workforce training diagram demonstrates how we will develop our staff and ‘Grow your Own’.

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What this means:

Choice and opportunity can be made available for those that wish to

develop careers or skills through tailored training packages linked to career development;

- For example: an administrative post could have a career path to a

senior management/leadership role or follow a profession route;

Training packages will also include coaching; mentoring; work shadowing;

development opportunities; secondments. A Workforce Plan has been developed to address the identified issues. Other Council and Support Services

The services that we provide do not work in isolation of other Council services. Community protection, housing services, environmental and waste services and

the offer from the Corserv companies all provide direct services to the customer that are also provided directly or indirectly by the Planning and Sustainable

Development service. The aim should be to reduce duplication, eliminate inconsistencies and ensure the offer to the customer is clear and reliable.

Support Services are being transformed with a new target operating model that places greater emphasis on self-service. Service level agreements will be sought

with other services to maximise Council efficiencies. Throughout the four year period we will need support from legal, strategic

finance, change management, project management, communications and engagement, IT and procurement to help deliver day to day services, the

Council’s transformation projects and internal restructures that will happen to meet the changing needs of our business and demands of our customers.

The case for change

Performance against our indicators shows we are good, we achieve government targets agreeing planning permissions including a good record of major planning

performance, we have an up-to-date Local Plan, we have a five year land supply, however, the evidence also shows us that we can do more and better. We have

over 20,000 stalled planning permissions, a poor public perception through social media, we’ve taken a long time to produce policy historically, we do not

influence major development in a joined up way, we have some vociferous residents that do not accept the need for the adopted development levels and want greater environmental protection and we do not talk to people consistently

well. We want to move from our strong performance management led position to a culture of pursuing shared objectives and communicating those objectives

clearly. We will:

• All work to our shared objectives

• Take responsibility to make the right decision • Put the right people in right places

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• Do more talking and less inputting of data

• Do joint Development Management, Policy and Delivery work on strategic/important projects and work with the wider Directorate

• Take risks and be more forward looking • Adopt a simple, flexible and proactive approach to everything we do

• Be reliable, trustworthy and approachable with easy to access systems Our Priorities projects are:

1. Facilitate the Investment Programme

2. Build a 1,000 homes and mitigate the housing crisis 3. Deliver a new community at Threemilestone 4. Be part of a coordinated response to climate change

5. Foster place-shaping and improve the quality of development to ensure we deliver high quality, safe and healthy buildings, places and infrastructure

whilst growing the environment 6. Develop a working together programme

7. Working together and improve intelligence sharing to produce key policy and strategy

8. Shape the regional and national agenda – making it relevant to Cornwall

9. Improve internal and external communication

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How are we going to get there?

Goals

Projects or Activity

Realistic timescales

Team Plan

Business Plan Objective

Facilitate the Investment

Programme

To provide planning support to the Investment Programme

Projects by allocating dedicated officers within a specialist

Cornwall-wide development management team

Projects include:

A range of housing projects to contribute to

Local Plan targets whilst making a commercial return

Development of workspace; industrial

and office

2019

A number of housing projects are

in the delivery stages

New acquisitions will take place in

2019/20

Development Management,

Sustainable Growth &

Innovation, Policy

Homes for Cornwall

Connecting

Cornwall Democratic

Communities

Wider investments which may

include energy, retail or other types of investment that provide strategic fit as well as

a minimum benchmark commercial return

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Goals

Projects or Activity

Realistic timescales

Team Plan

Business Plan Objective

Build a 1,000 homes and mitigate the

housing crisis

To provide planning support to the Housing Development

Programme by allocating dedicated officers within a

specialist Cornwall-wide development management team

2019

Development Management

Homes for Cornwall

Connecting

Cornwall Democratic

Communities

Deliver a new community at

Threemilestone

To provide planning support by allocating dedicated officers

within a specialist Cornwall-wide development

management team

2019 Development Management

Homes for Cornwall

Connecting

Cornwall Democratic

Communities

Using an investment led approach to create a new

community through:

Land acquisition Master planning leading

to a planning consent Neighbourhood plan

refresh

Northern access road delivery

Forward funding key infrastructure (school, community facilities,

utilities, green spaces and ways)

2019-2022 Sustainable Growth &

Innovation ‘Adam Birchall’

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Goals

Projects or Activity

Realistic timescales

Team Plan

Business Plan Objective

Be part of a coordinated response

to climate change

Coastal erosion Chief Planning Officer Advice Note on coastal

erosion

2019 Policy Healthy Cornwall

Green and Prosperous

Cornwall Support the Climate Change

Action Plan Group

Foster place-shaping

and improve the quality of development

to ensure we deliver high quality, safe and healthy buildings,

places and infrastructure whilst

growing the environment

Produce key policy and

strategies

See individual

project plans or application files for

timeframes

2019

Development

Management, Sustainable

Growth & Innovation, Policy

Healthy Cornwall

Homes for

Cornwall Green and

Prosperous Cornwall

Connecting Cornwall

Democratic

Communities

Integration of Planning and

Health

High Streets Inquiry

High Streets Fund

Place Shaping Boards

Form new infrastructure team to focus on allocation and

spend of s106/CIL

Support to Neighbourhood

Development Plans

Facilitate Sustainable Growth &

Innovation led sites in Liskeard, Penzance, Hayle, Pool, Falmouth/Penryn,

Bodmin, Launceston, Newquay and West Carclaze Garden

Village

Strategic private sector led

sites in Allocations Document and Neighbourhood Plans

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Goals

Projects or Activity

Realistic timescales

Team Plan

Business Plan Objective

Develop a working together programme

Participate in a ‘working together project’ to improve

collaboration including:

Shadow DLT ELT’s Line Managers

workshops Hackathons/Sprints

Rapid trialling Active mentoring and

coaching

2019

All Healthy Cornwall

Homes for Cornwall

Green and Prosperous

Cornwall

Connecting Cornwall

Democratic Communities

Establish networks to include:

A cross Directorate Young Planner group

Performance Management and Reporting

Policy network Resourcing

Council Consultation responses

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Goals

Projects or Activity

Realistic timescales

Team Plan

Business Plan Objective

Work together and improve intelligence

sharing to produce key policy and strategy

50/50 Vision Local Industrial Strategy

Local Plan Local Transport Plan

Housing Strategy Housing SPD Integrated design

guidance including Highways Design

PERFECT project – green infrastructure

Environmental Growth

Minerals DPD Allocations DPD

Cornwall Monitoring Report

Scoping of potential to

improve our intelligence within short, medium

and long term. To include links with corporate centre and

opportunities with the universities

2019 2019

2019 2019

Four year EU funded project 2019

2019 2019

2019 ‘annual’

Policy, Sustainable

Growth & Innovation team

involvement

Healthy Cornwall

Homes for Cornwall

Green and Prosperous

Cornwall

Connecting Cornwall

Democratic Communities

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Goals

Projects or Activity

Realistic timescales

Team Plan

Business Plan Objective

Shape the regional and national agenda –

making it relevant to Cornwall

Bid for funding HIF, Small Sites, Garden

Villages Transforming Land

Charges to deal with Government change

Adapting to the changes

to the Building Regulations

2019

2019

Policy, Sustainable

Growth & Innovation team

involvement, Land Charges

Healthy Cornwall

Homes for Cornwall

Democratic Communities

Improve internal and external

communication

Continue to monitor our response times and

quality of response Carry our ‘Sprints’ and

take opportunities to get

better through the use of digital platforms

Develop Communication Strategy

Focus on our

engagement with the public and raise our

awareness through a ‘#positive planning’ programme

Ensure publications are accurate and up to date

Embed the culture of early communication through the area team

Embed Spring 2019 All Democratic Communities

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Goals

Projects or Activity

Realistic timescales

Team Plan

Business Plan Objective

approach to delivery Regular communication

of project successes Quarterly performance

to include information around ‘Sprints’ and ‘avoidable contact’ and

will feed into the Customer Experiences’

team aim of publishing a customer dashboard which will be available

on our website

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How will we know when we get there? Our Key Indicators:

Indicator code

Indicator title/description Reported

at: 2018/19

target

2019/20

target

2020/21

target

2021/22

target

Current strategic and critical performance indicators

PSDSCPI05 % of major planning applications decided

in time by type

CLT/IPHB/

Cabinet Quarterly

85% 85% 85% 85%

PSDSCPI01a % of planning appeals where the Council has an award of costs made against it by

the Planning Inspectorate

CLT/IPHB/Cabinet

Quarterly

5% 5% <3% <3%

PSDSCPI01 % of planning appeals successfully

defended

CLT/IPHB/

Cabinet Quarterly (but may

change to Annual)

69% 69% 69% 69%

PSD111 Number of new homes completed (as part of the Local Plan)

CLT/IPHB/Cabinet

Quarterly

3,000 3,000 3,000 3,000

EGLocalPlan Delivering Local Plan jobs:

Number of full-time jobs provided to meet Local Plan target (2010-2030: 38,000 jobs = 1,900 per year reported)

DLT/CLT

Annually (in arrears due to

data source)

1,900 1,900 1,900 1,900

Service level performance indicators are measured and monitored locally.

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What might stop us?

All risks must be managed in accordance with the Risk Management Framework but only the high level risks need to be included in service plans.

Risk Description Responsible

Officer

Inherent

Status

Current

Status

Failure to implement actions to deliver the Local Plan

Louise Wood 20 10

Failure to meet income targets Louise Wood 10

Loss of IT/data Louise Wood 10

There is a risk that the implications of the Human Rights Act on Council

functions and related management responsibilities are not fully understood and addressed leading to

significant reputational loss for the Council and/or legal claims

Louise Wood 15

Indemnities:

Risk and Insurance General Information Employers Liability

Public Liability

Business Continuity Plan

The Service’s Business Continuity Plan (BCP) is embedded within the Economic Growth & Development BCP. Plan tested in April 2018 – Plan has

further been revised - latest version dated March 2019. The plan will be activated when one or more of the following occurs:

The Service is disrupted due to extreme weather conditions i.e.

Conditions lasting longer than 5 days preventing access to place of

work

Loss of IT/Wi-Fi/phone lines for more than 1 day

Service is disrupted due to significant loss of staff/workforce problems i.e. widespread sickness; access to work base; or significant reduction in qualified staff

Access to key buildings is limited or unavailable Significant long term interference with the transport network

Suspected unauthorised works to a listed building or scheduled

monument

Emergency works required on dangerous structures or coastal

erosion/land slips.

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Appendix 1