The construction industry has seen a huge surge during the pandemic. Homeowners with more cash in their pockets than normal are considering extensions or changes to their homes because working from home has become the future.
Last month planning applications rose in every English region compared to July 2020. This follows a bumper start to the year where February saw an amazing 25 per cent increase in applications (compared to the same month in 2020) across the country. Throughout 2020 there was a 36 per cent increase in the number of applications, compared to 2019. *This activity has led to a huge demand on Dorset Council’s planning services.
When the council formed in April 2019 from former district, borough and county councils there were six different planning teams, working on different systems. Work started on moving these teams into one and to start transferring 47 years of records held by each area onto a new system.
In spring of 2020 the team had been formed and areas that needed more support had been identified. The discovery phase of the planning convergence and transformation was complete, and the team were ready to transfer the first area to the new system.
Fast forward to the present; four out of six areas have been transferred, with the next planned for early October. People have been recruited to fill vacant posts and teams are using the new joined up system.
Along the way efficiencies have been made. Looking at the service that’s provided, what is legally required and what things have always been done that take time and are not mandatory. Slimming down these services such as no longer sending neighbour letters, changing the way notices are published and automating lists for parish councillors, so officers can focus on planning applications.
Cllr David Walsh, Dorset Council’s portfolio holder for planning said:
“We ask our residents to bear with us, we know it is frustrating, but these delays are being felt across the country and it out of our control. It is incredibly busy, and we are working on all applications in date order. So, I ask for people not to chase their application, by phone or email. Doing this only takes up officer time that could be spent on progressing work.
“We have kept fellow councillors, town and parish councils and property agents informed of the situation by newsletters and emails and will continue to keep them up to date.”
Another area that has seen a huge increase in demand is land searches and charges. The stamp duty holiday encouraged people to move home to new areas to give a better life balance. This national incentive to help the property market has meant that the number of searches needed to be carried out have almost doubled.
There are some areas that are not seeing such delays. The Building Control service have been plan checking and visiting sites throughout the pandemic to ensure that buildings are constructed to national building regulations. They have filled vacant positions and have also recruited two apprentices who will start their building control degree in September.
*All data used in this release has been taken from https://www.planningportal.co.uk/
I think more people need to be recruited to deal with land searches. When I bought my property in 2018, the land searches took 3months to be completed. I am now in the process of selling the property and so far the land searches have taken 3 months and are still not complete. Someone I know has been quoted 98 working days for the land searches. This has a knock on effect on trying to find a rental I am local and missed out on a number of rentals as I don’t have a completion date.
Hi Claire – We have been recruiting more people across the whole of the service, but because this is a nation-wide problem all other authorities are also recruiting. Also we don’t know how long this surge will last so what so we to with the extra staff when/if it dies down? It is a very difficult situation and I understand your frustration, but there isn’t a simple resolution to this issue, We are trying everything we can to reduce waiting times. Fiona
Hi Fiona,
Thank you very much for your reply. Bournemouth, Christchurch & Poole Council are currently able to complete the searches in 10 working days. I understand that there has been a surge in property sales, due to the stamp duty. Once things have calmed down if the surge slows down, maybe officers could then be transferred to the planning office, I have heard that planning applications are being sent ‘up country’ to be validated due to lack of resources.
Hi Claire – thank you for your suggestions. As it happens we have been working with an external agency on validation backlogs as part of the convergence project. This is a nationwide problem, and as such there is only a limited number of planning offers in the country. Fiona
If there is concern about having to deploy extra staff once the demand for local searches has died down why not use a Temp Agency or even offer casual or fixed term contracts? Other parts of DC do that.
Hi Pat – The issue is that it isn’t ‘just an admin job’ and we need to have trained or train people to do the work. Because of the national situation it has been difficult to find these people. That said we are now up to full complement and working to bring those waiting times down. Fiona
I love it at Dorset we come down 3 times a year sound like a dream job is there any more jobs on offer?
Hi Andrew – all our jobs are advertised here https://jobs.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk/
Do you have a guess of the extra time for decision dates on planning? I believe 6 months was the normal waiting time.
Why not make the information publicly available so that people can do their own searches?
Good morning. When the councils merged, some planning officers must have been “surplus to requirements” – what about contacting them to see if they are still available? You could have fixed term contacts so when the bulge of cases is dealt with and the staff are no longer needed, it is a way to reduce staff numbers.
Hi Susan – Some took retirement or voluntary redundancy but most of the planning staff remained. We have now recruited to all vacant posts. The issue we have is that this is a nationwide problem so there aren’t ‘spare people’ who want to work in this area.
We are in the throws of a house purchase and the searches are holding everything up badly. So far the dates promised for our searches have been postponed twice and we are now a month later than we should be at this stage. While I appreciate the covid situation has affected all departments this delay is costing the buyers thousands of pounds particularly if we don’t meet the end of September deadline. Is there any way to speed up our searches?
How do we sign up to the newsletter? I was unaware there was such a thing and would like to see the updates re the 12-week backlog in the validation of planning applications!
Our newsletters can be signed up here https://dorsetcouncil.us1.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=c39535cf4f9d1ca66af8d2b44&id=bc36c80975
“We have kept fellow councillors, town and parish councils and property agents informed of the situation by newsletters and emails and will continue to keep them up to date.” It’s great to hear that you have been doing that. It would have been helpful if Dorset Council colleagues and Dorset Council Applicants could also have been kept informed of the situation. Expectations need to be managed and if it is now going to take three months instead of three weeks to register an application, and much longer to get to a determination date, this information should be available so that applicants can plan for that length of time. The problem isn’t really down to Covid is it. It’s restructuring and amalgamation which has adversely affected a number of Services in the same way.
Hi, surely would it not make sense to keep up to date with the new works and and update the archive as and when it was convenient to fit around the new works thus dramatically reducing delays and take pressure off the countless number of people affected by this.
Alternatively the two systems could be run side by site until the new system had been full updated.
I’m sure there must be a good explanation and look forward to hearing it….
Please can you tell me why we are building on fields and country spaces when there are so many empty shops that could so easily be converted into homes now that we don’t need them and they sit empty. Do you not realise that some of the relaxed building plans are destroying green spaces and are so detrimental to are environment and nature. Surly one thing Covid has taught us is we all need green space not more concrete!!!
Hi Julia – we are unable to force private individuals or organisations to turn their commercial properties into housing. When a change of use comes in we willl consider it using the national planning framework policy and local plans. Fiona
So Dorset Council have decided to stop informing neighbours of a planning application and have passed the responsibility for displaying the application notice to the applicant.
I know this will save a bit of money, but it is an open door to unscrupulous applicants and for many neighbours it will end in (angry) tears.
Dorset Council should now publicise the need for every homeowner to search its planning website every 2-3 weeks for applications from adjacent properties. Not just the property either side, but the ones at the rear too.
Please reconsider this retrograde step.
Why are there only comments that you want to put on on here ? It’s all far to word, no local people allowed to comment about the destruction of our local wildlife and green spaces. Unbelievable and a disgrace !!! 😡
My planning application was validated in November 2019 and I am still awaiting a decision almost 2 years later. I was told that the officer dealing with my application is working “significantly reduced hours” which is extremely frustrating and totally unhelpful to me. Why can’t another officer be allocated to my application or at least be monitoring it and providing an update to me? I last heard from the planning officer in February after I requested an update. I asked for another update in July via email and voicemail and had no reply, not even an acknowledgement of my email. What are the timescales within which planning applications must be agreed or refused? Surely 2 years is well beyond any reasonable timescale.
If the Planners can’t cope with the amount of planning applications and Dorset is currently working on a new local plan. The answer is simple. Don’t accept any more planning applications until the reorganisation is complete and the new local plan is adopted.
I live in a village under severe threat from developers who, for whatever reason can’t see the damage their projects would cause dur to lack of infrastructure and service providers. And the planners appear blind to sound common sense in their efforts not to upset these money grabbing vultures!
The question is…how mnay professional, fully qualified and experienced Planners were employed in the previous 6 Councils and how many are there now at Dorset Council overall?
Simon – I don’t have the figures to hand, but if you wanted to know then you can submit and Freedom of Information request – email foi@dorsetcouncil.gov.uk. Fiona
We had a lovely cul re sac for 35 years until the planning department made an awful decision to allow a building to be put up completely out of character of the other dwellings .now they are likely to do the same.The residents had restrictions all that time as above.
Hi Ms King, Please can you help house movers understand why (West) Dorset property searches are taking disproportionately longer than neighbouring, coastal councils who will be experiencing the same levels of demand and resource constraints that you have described. We are still waiting on a search at 65+ working days – and told we will be lucky if we have it within 85 days. Even if it arrived tomorrow, this makes West Devon one of the slowest in the country (baring Hackney who have suspended all searches). In contrast East Devon (12 days); South Hams (21); Torbay (21); Cornwall (18); Poole (15); Bournemouth (8); New Forest (12); etc. Saying that there is a chronic shortage of planners, every council facing the same pressures, etc. doesn’t adequately explain this gaping disparity. Housing chains are collapsing, home buyers are missing out on stamp duty relief. This suggests that there is a significant systemic failure – not just backlog, bottleneck, or IT upgrade. Please direct us to evidence demonstrating that the council is aware that they are among the worst performers in the country – even when neighbouring (and equally popular, high demand) councils are doing significantly better – and are tackling it with the urgency it deserves. (Imagine any service or payment, public or private being delayed for this length of time…) Looking forward to your response. Thanks.
Hi Adrian – to give you a full answer I have passed your question to the team and I will post the answer when I get it. Fiona
Thank you, Fiona – will look forward to the response.
Hi Adrian – this is the response:
Please accept our sincere apologies for the delay that you have experienced. Over the last year Dorset Council has been working to combine the land charges functions of Dorset’s six-former district, borough and county councils into one team, using one planning management software version in place of the different approaches of the previous councils. This has coincided with a time of unprecedented demand on the service as people look to move out of cities to more rural areas. Demand varies week to week but has been running at twice and sometimes three times that in corresponding weeks in previous years.
In the longer term our move to one team and one system will enable us to process applications more efficiently and to provide a more consistent service but there is still a great deal of work to be done to get there and at the same time there is a very high demand for searches.
Where possible we process searches in date order of receipt. From the date of acceptance of an offer the average house purchase takes 16 weeks to complete. Even with the time currently being taken to process searches there should be little or no impact on people’s ability to complete their purchase if applications for searches are made early on in the buying process when an offer is accepted. In exceptional circumstances we will consider expediting a search and processing it out of date order. If you could kindly let us know the full address and postcode we can look into the status of your search.
Councillors will be reviewing our performance at a meeting of the Council’s Place and Resources Scrutiny Committee on 21 September and we remain committed to bringing our service back to within a more acceptable timescale as soon as we can. Once again please accept our apologies for the delay.
Good morning,
It is extremely disappointing and stressful that searches for buying a Property in west Dorset is taking so long. I realise the councils have merged, and there is extra demand but surely this should be given urgent priority as the wait is unacceptable as it is causing stress, and breakdown of chains which results in loss of money to individuals.
There must be staff that could be taken from other areas of land searches within Dorset ie new forest, Poole, that do not have such long delays to get West Dorset back to a reasonable timescale.
I feel as though not enough urgency or priority is being given to this.
I look forward to your reply.
Hi Sue – I can assure you all trained employees of Dorset Council are doing their very best and it is one of the priorities the council which includes all the statutory services we provide such as social care for adults and children, fostering and adoption and waste management to name a few. Your suggestion, unfortunately, is unworkable because this is a national issue so all councils are having the same problem and also the councils that cover Poole (BCP council) and the New forest are completely seperate organisations. We are currently working through applications that we recieved in June. Fiona
Hi there. Is it possible to know where you are in terms of processing applications now? I can see on Sept 13th you were working through June’s.
Our target return date was 27th Sept (9 weeks from submission). We are still waiting and are nearing the expiry date for our mortgage agreement. We have had no information since the target date became overdue and are becoming increasingly worried about the length of time this is taking. We understand the department is busy and would never expect it to be returned within 10 days, but if a 9 week turnaround was agreed we would expect this to be met? Any information would be gratefully received.
Dear Ms Rogers
Our sincere apologies however over the last year Dorset Council has been working to combine the six-former district, borough and county councils planning functions together into one team using one planning management software version.
Transferring the data onto the new system has been be phased. Former North has been migrated (Oct 20), former West (Jan 21), former Weymouth & Portland (Mar 21), former Purbeck (Jul 21) and former East this week (w/c: 04/10/21) hence the current delays. Unfortunately the unprecedented amount of enquires we are also currently receiving due to the stamp duty holiday have only added to delays.
However, once the information for all areas of Dorset has been transferred the benefits will include more efficient processing of applications, and consistent information available to customers. There will also be further work to review all our processes, as part of the planning transformation project.
We hope that this helps to explain why our average daily turnaround times are as they are currently. We also continue to work as hard as we can in date order and on a first come, first serve basis in order to offer a continued and fair service for both full local authority searches and personal search enquiries, whilst we remain committed to bringing our service back to within a more acceptable timescale as soon as we can.
In the meantime Ms Rogers if you are still waiting for a search result(s), please can you kindly advise of the full address and postcode by return and we can look into the status of this enquiry for you.
We will await to hear from you.
Kind Regards
Louise Richardson