Council's planning service steps up its recruitment

Cheshire East Council’s planning service has stepped up its recruitment drive for more staff, as the borough continues to be an attractive location for house builders and residents wanting to undertake home improvements.

Cheshire East continues to be an extremely popular place to live, with outstanding schools, low unemployment, and some of the best countryside in England. And that means more work for the council’s planning service, as house building continues apace.

Cheshire East planners receive an above average number of applications from volume house builders, individual property owners, businesses and small developers, and the service needs to tackle the increase in work. Therefore, a major review has been announced to improve the customer experience, reduce the backlog, and promote Cheshire East’s planning service as an attractive place to work.  

Jayne Traverse, the council’s executive director of place, has heaped praise on the planning team for the way in which it has faced up to an above average number of planning applications and other service demands in recent times.

She said: “We would like our customers to understand that planning applications can take some time to process because of the statutory consultations needed and other factors that our officers have to take into consideration before a decision can be made.

“Covid has brought some significant challenges with regards to businesses needing to operate differently and, in some cases, requiring planning permission to do so.

“It has also had a serious impact on the council’s planning service, with staff working from home, meetings having to take place virtually, and staff training, recruitment and retention all seriously impacted.

“We have brought in additional external support to help us reduce the backlog of applications. The large volume of applications is because Cheshire East is a place where people want to live, businesses want to locate and grow, and developers want to build homes. Residents also want to extend their properties, either to add value or because of a growing family.

“We would like to apologise to customers who have been waiting a significant amount of time to have their planning application assigned. I am pleased to say that I am undertaking a full review of our planning service with a view to improving the customer experience and our communication with customers, recruiting more staff, and reducing the backlog of applications.

“I will be supported by an advisory group of elected members of the council who will share their own experiences and offer advice throughout the review.”

Councillor Mick Warren, Cheshire East Council’s chair of the council’s environment and communities committee, said: “We are aware of the frustrations felt by our customers owing to the delays in getting applications determined and other planning-related matters being resolved.

“Therefore, we need to provide additional support to our officers to help them reduce the backlog of work and improve the time it is currently taking to deal with planning applications and related enquiries.”