Agenda item

A public question has been received for Councillor Bill Evans, Cabinet Member (Planning, Business Support and Regeneration).  The question and response are enclosed.   

Actions arising from questions to Cabinet Member (Finance, Property and Assets):

To arrange for the extension of the local community consultation on Moss Side Playground beyond 2 weeks to account for the school summer holiday period.

Actions arising from questions to the Cabinet Member (Planning, Business Support and Regeneration):

1.         That an update be provided to Councillor Turner regarding the Town Deal.

2.         That the Local Plan Working Group discuss the issues relating to the need to review of Planning Policy and Local Plan and the need for a draft Supplementary Planning Document, which is currently being developed.

Questions to the Cabinet Member (Finance, Property and Assets)

A question was asked by Councillor Michael Green in relation to a recent community consultation on Moss Side Playground which was only planned to run for 2 weeks.

The Cabinet Member (Finance, Property and Assets) agreed to arrange for the extension of the local community consultation on Moss Side Playground beyond 2 weeks to account for the school summer holiday period.

Questions to the Cabinet Member (Planning, Business Support and Regeneration)

Councillor Angela Turner asked a question about recent developments concerning the Town Deal funding bid.

Councillor Michael Green asked a question highlighting the need for a review of Planning Policy to be brought forward as the next review was not due for two years. He suggested that an updated Supplementary Planning Document was required. The Chief Executive informed members that a draft Supplementary Planning Document was currently being developed.

The Cabinet Member (Planning, Business Support and Regeneration) in his responses agreed to the following:-

1.         That an update be provided to Councillor Turner regarding the Town Deal.

2.         That the Local Plan Working Group discuss the issues relating to the need to review of Planning Policy and Local Plan and the need for a draft Supplementary Planning Document, which is currently being developed.

Finally, the Cabinet Member (Planning, Business Support and Regeneration) referred to the written question from a member of the public and response attached to agenda.

The question was as follows:-

“I had reason to contact the enforcement office on the 05/04/21 regarding Langlay Homes working outside the permitted hours of the planning application (condition 10 - the reason is to safeguard the amenities of neighbouring properties in accordance with policy 17 of central lancs core strategy). They had been working on Good Friday, Easter Sunday & Easter Monday, this made sitting in my garden unbearable during to the noise of JCB etc. No reply was received from SRBC till the 12/04/21 after another weekend of disturbance.

The initial reply was that the case officer would investigate the breach of conditions. But further breaches occurred. I asked a number of questions to the enforcement office, none were answered.

Why do we have this conditions if the builder continues to break and the council seem unable to enforce.

The whole responses from the enforcement office was very poor, not once did they return my phone calls, not once they answer one of my questions. I

If the council is a service industry they should be more customer focussed.”

The response was as follows:-

“This question relates to the issue of a housebuilder working outside of their approved hours of construction on a building site off Langdale Road.

As soon as they became aware of this planning enforcement/ case officer had detailed contact with the developers. It is of course the case that Enforcement have a very significant case load covering a multitude of developments across the Borough.

 This issue came at the time when Government Legislation had been introduced in the light of Covid situation to allow developers to write to Local Authority’s seeking agreement to extended working hours. This is to allow the building industry to carry on as efficiently as possible during the Covid crisis .The developers set out alternative working hours following our contact, these were acceptable and therefore regularised the situation.

There are a series emails over a period of days between the resident asking the question and our Enforcement Officer in respect of this matter. We are sorry that it is felt that questions weren’t answered as these emails attempted to do this. The emails were also followed up with a more detailed response to a Stage One complaint letter from the resident.

The developers have confirmed they will be pro-active in keeping us informed of any change in working hours in the future.”