CBE: an introduction to the planning process

Martin Sellens, Head of Planning, Leeds City Council

Martin Sellens:  The planning service in Leeds is one of the biggest in the country. We're one of the largest metropolitan districts, 250 square miles. We have got a population of about 700,000 people and my service employs about 140 staff. We effectively deal with anybody that wants to actually build anything within the city. That can be from a house extension, through to a multi-million pound project either in the centre of Leeds or in the outskirts we have dealt extensively with the football ground here. We have dealt with the cricket ground, we're dealing with the airport at the moment we've got major projects that we're trying to deliver at the present moment in time. So the first port of call normally is does something require planning permission. We deal with a lot of household applications which are about half of our work load and then lots of projects. We deal with probably something like about two to three hundred major projects a year, within Leeds. We also deal with the planning register, so we deal with land search and if somebody wants to buy a house then they do a search on the planning register to see what previous planning permissions have been granted and so on. We deal with pre-application inquiries. People come and talk to us about what they want to do before they put in for planning permission. Actually dealing with the applications we have statutory targets to deal with them, smaller applications within 8 weeks, bigger applications within 13 weeks, and then post application, a lot of post application work. If we refuse planning permission, people have rights of appeal. We dealt with something like 300 planning appeals last year within the city. And then of course we have the enforcement side, so these are people where we get complaints from members of the public, about the fact that something is happening, do the people need planning permission for that and we have to go out and investigate it. We have a range of powers in terms of dealing with that. We do have staff working at all different levels within the organisation. From the clerical grades coming in dealing with simple administrative tasks through to technical tasks and then professional tasks in relation to dealing with various bits of the Planning Act. So we have a quality people with degrees working in the service but we also have people that have come in as school leavers, straight from school, worked in the organisation and worked their way through. We look for a number of skills through all of our people and we are a customer service, within the council. So, customer relationship is obviously is a key skill we're dealing with different people in different ways. Being tough, and we need to be tough, but being sensitive when we need to be sensitive and getting back to people and having a good telephone manner. And then also dealing with change. Change is a constant thing that we deal with. We are going through the economic down turn at the moment, we are having to work in new particular ways but other changes which are on the horizon for us are electronic working. The local authorities are expected to, most of their service to be delivered electronically in a couple of years time and we are working towards that. Another big change is the fact that this year we will open up our information base to the public. We will have public access to our information and the third main change that we are looking at is new ways of working which involved actually not having structured teams necessarily in terms of our work place but much more flexible floor space so we make less of accommodation. So, new ways of work, very different in terms of how we worked before. But within that skill set, information about the built environment and how we deal with the built environment is critically important. I think that the other issue which is current for us and which is important in terms of development and is an area which is developing, is around the whole issue of sustainability. For the first time in the planning act which was approved last year 2008 planning act, sustainability is now a core purpose for the planning system. So how we move to a more sustainable city in terms of climate change and energy and use of water and so on is a key challenge for us as we move to the future. We are doing a core strategy for Leeds about how Leeds will develop within the next ten to fifteen years within that core strategy we are setting out some keys issue in relation to sustainability and climate change and how its going to develop over the next ten to fifteen years. And from a development and control point of view which is where I'm at in terms of dealing with these planning applications. What policies are we working to in relation to sustainability? How do we encourage a more sustainable city? How do we deal with taking people out of cars more and improving public transport? That's a key element of the work that we are doing and we will be developing that more in the next year. So, issues looking around that through the sorts of work that you are doing on your Diploma I think is also a key area which is going to be important to us in the future and will become an increasingly important area as we move forward.

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