To receive any announcements from the Chairman.

The Chairman said that Mr Andrew Ashcroft would be commencing with the Council as the new Head of Planning Services on 3rd July 2006. He welcomed Mr Alan McLoughlin the new Head of Legal and Democratic Services to the meeting and also Councillor PG Turpin who had recently been elected Chairman of the Southern Area Planning Sub-Committee. The Chairman expressed his deep sorrow that Mrs RF Lincoln had been obliged to retire as a Councillor due to ill health, and paid tribute to her many years sterling service to the local community with Herefordshire Council and the former South Herefordshire District Council.

The development Control Manager said that Planning Services had dealt with the following matters:-

Pre Application enquiries.

The Team dealt with over 2,000 pre application enquiries in 2005/06. Some of these were relatively trivial, but some took nearly as long as a planning application itself to deal with. The key "Qualification" for being recorded on the computer is that there is a formal exchange of correspondence and a permanent record made of the advice which was given.

Planning Applications.

Following a burst of activity in the final quarter I am pleased to report that all three BV109 targets were met in 2005/06. The final out-turn figures were:

Major applications: target 60% - out-turn 61%

Minor applications: target 65% - out-turn 73%

Other applications: target 80% - out-turn 85%

Notwithstanding this performance the ODPM will continue to categorise Herefordshire Council as a "Standards Authority" for the next year due to the failure to meet targets in the twelve months to June 2005. It is important that progress is maintained to continue to achieve BV 109 targets.

Delegation

The rate of delegations is now close to the former BVPI target of 90% - in 2005/06 the out-turn figure was 88%.

Appeals.

The appeals success rate continues to be satisfactory. BV 204 only measures appeals against refusals of permission. By that standard 27% of appeals were upheld in 2005/06 (which compares favourably with the latest published national average for 2004/05 of 33%). What is also significant is that the appeals workload has gone up compared with the previous year - in 2004/05 Herefordshire had 25 appeals upheld out of 82 - a rate of 30%, whereas in 2005/06 the figure was 28 out of 104 (a rate of 27% as noted above). Consequently it can be seen that despite a 20% increase in workload the success rate for the Council went up too.

Enforcement

In 2005/06 the appeal success rate for enforcement appeals was even more impressive - of the 9 enforcement appeals which were determined only 1 was upheld - a rate of 11%. By comparison the most recent national figures (for 2004/05) record that nationally 24% of enforcement appeals are upheld. Once again Herefordshire Council's performance is well above the national average.

Of course enforcement is about more than just appeals - in 2005/06 the enforcement officers served a total of 29 Enforcement Notices, 93 Planning Contravention Notices and 20 Beach of Condition Notices. Overall the enforcement officers received over 1000 enforcement enquiries between them. Some of these turned out to be trivial or otherwise not expedient to take action, however, they all needed to be investigated and the outcomes recorded. In the course of 2006/07 a set of new enforcement indicators are being tested out with a view to incorporating them into the service plan for the following year.