A few weeks ago with relation to the PAS review of Thurrock I stated:
Something that jumped out from the new damming PAS Thurrock Peer review apart from the usual issues such as poor officer/member relations at committee was it being forced to share admin with a place directorate. This is often down as a ‘saving’ and wherever done is costly and results in chaos. As here
Interesting to see in planning a full investigation from Joey Gardiner how mostly writes for Housing Today, in Planning, Excellent Journalism. evidencing this nationwide.
Paul Barnard, chair of the planning working group at the Association for Directors of Environment, Planning and Transport (Adept), says: “I’m very strongly of the view that these transformations can cause absolute chaos, and do not deliver the promised savings.”
POS’s Kiely, a former council chief planner, agrees: “Splitting policy and development management is fundamentally problematic, and if I was at a council where it happened, I’d leave,” he says. “The chief planner’s role is to create that vision that becomes a plan and then deliver it – it’s like commanding an army. If you’ve separated development management from policy, then no-one’s doing that job – no-one’s doing that thinking.”
Planning understands senior planners have been concerned enough about the issue to have raised it at the Capacity and Capability programme board, chaired by the government’s chief planner Joanna Averley, which oversees the Department of Levelling Up, Housing and Communities’ efforts to help local authorities “deliver an efficient planning service for all
Now we have a thorough piece that can be shown to CEs and members who might be tempted to go down this discredited route under pressure from spending on Homelessness, children and adults care etc.
Ignite Consulting and iESE will now need to dramatically up their professional liability insurance.
Decisions, Decisions, Decisions 