Wokingham

Planning officers and councillors at Wokingham District Council are celebrating significant improvement in planning performance.

Chairman of Wokingham council’s development control committee Wokingham Cllr Angus Ross said: “At the end of last year I had cause to write to all staff in the council to congratulate them for the huge improvement we have seen in meeting our development control targets. This is down to officers and councillors working together and they deserve recognition.

“Improvements in the service are obvious both to the applicant and the general public. We are working towards and seeing improvements in customer relations, whether contact is by letter, email, telephone, or in person at the council offices and are seeing real progress. This is a triumph of teamwork with everyone in the service pulling together to achieve this very positive result.”

Each planning authority in the country is measured against government-set targets with significant financial rewards offered for those authorities that improve their performance. Work is also underway to enhance the quality of decision making through a new residential design guide and a review of practice and procedures.

In the period between January 1, 2005, and December 31, 2005, Wokingham District Council exceeded its targets for determining planning applications in all areas.

Significant work has been put into improving development control performance by both Wokingham officers and Wokingham councillors at the council and the service has been reorganised to focus on clearly identified priorities. The service is now fully-staffed and senior planners are able to concentrate on the more complicated major applications, whilst career progression is enhanced for junior planning officers. Other improvements have been as a result of increased use of electronic methods for handling planning applications.

The Wokingham council’s good practice in using clear criteria to judge which neighbours to notify of planning applications has also been noted by the Audit Commission, as has the development of the planning pages on the council’s website at www.wokingham.gov.uk which now allow people to view applications online.

A review of planning enforcement and compliance is a priority for this year, as are further improvements in customer focus, working with developers, residents and town and parish councils.

Wokingham Cllr Ross said: “We will continue to work hard to improve still further, developing good working relationships with everyone involved in the planning process. But our recent good performance against government-set targets, is a clear indication that we’re very definitely moving in the right direction. I’d like to thank everyone for all their hard work.”

Wokingham District Council