The planning department at Bristol City Council could soon come out of special measures after progress was made on tackling a backlog. The government put the council “under designation” in March after developers and homeowners faced long delays in getting planning permission.
A giant backlog of planning applications built up after a recruitment freeze, but over the past few months planning bosses have turned around the failing department. Decisions on granting permission for new buildings are now being made more quickly.
While the service is improving, historic poor performance means it’s uncertain whether the government will be ready to remove the designation. Councillors on the economy and skills policy committee were updated about the planning department on Monday, September 30.
The two main issues in the department, according to Simone Wilding, head of planning, were capacity and productivity. High staff turnover meant several experienced planners left the department. Lots of graduates were then recruited, who were “very good” and quickly promoted.
She said: “Out of the roughly 33 people in the core DM team, only five now have been in post longer than 15 months. 13 staff are completely new to the council, and two are still to start, one tomorrow and the other in about two weeks. That’s been a massive effort in training, upskilling and bedding everybody in.
“It’s realistic to expect that we will see further productivity increases, as people get more productive as they get more familiar with their posts. We’re not just relying on that, but also other additional improvements.”
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The backlog was sparked by a recruitment freeze in 2022, which led to the department losing a third of its staff. After the freeze ended, the department still struggled to recruit enough planning officers, partly due to a national shortage of planners, and had to rely on expensive agency staff. The department tried to hire apprentices, but “didn’t get the paperwork sorted” in time.
Now, the service is performing at similar levels to before the backlog began. But bosses hope to improve performance even further, with a raft of new improvements planned, including updating the council’s website to provide more information about applying for planning permission.
Ms Wilding said: “Before, the service was delivering with far too much baggage ongoing, and so it was all too easy for it to get pushed over the edge. We’re roughly back to where it was before the backlog spiralled out of control. But we need to keep improving and get to a better place.”
Despite the progress, the planning boss believes the government would be unlikely to take the council out of special measures, unless they were “more pragmatic” about their approach. That’s because the criteria for coming out looks at data over the past two years, which in Bristol would show the planning department still has a way to go yet before ticking all the boxes.
New official figures will be published in December, and the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities is expected to wait until at least then before making a decision. In the meantime, staying in special measures both costs the council money and heaps an extra administrative burden on planning officers — delaying progress on improving the service.
Special measures means developers wanting to build fewer than 10 houses can bypass the council and apply for planning permission from the government’s Planning Inspectorate instead.
Ms Wilding added: “If you look two years backward, the performance is just not good enough. But clearly we can’t change history. In my mind it wouldn’t be right to keep punishing us for stuff that’s in the past.”
Councillors on the committee were cautiously optimistic about the progress, while some remained sceptical about the “fragile” state of the service. But they praised Ms Wilding, who began the job in May last year, for her work in improving the planning department.
Green Councillor Paula O’Rourke said: “I would like to commend you for your leadership. This didn’t happen by accident. You have been very steadfast, proactive, and also shown great communication skills during this tough period.”