Joint Planning Policy and Development Management Team

Planning Advisory Service (PAS)

Open group | Started - July 2012 | Last activity - May

Former Member, modified 9 Years ago.

Joint Planning Policy and Development Management Team

Having recently completed a PAS/LGA Planning Peer Challenge ( which has been excellent) I am exploring if there are any examples of Council's having single Planning Policy and Development Management teams. This is potentially where Havant BC is going being a relatively small LPA, facing cuts; with a full Local Plan (albeit in need of update in a couple of years) and CIL etc in place.

Has anyone tried joining the two planning function and what might be the pros and cons?

Daniel Hudson, modified 9 Years ago.

RE: Joint Planning Policy and Development Management Team

Advocate Posts: 121 Join Date: 25/04/12 Recent Posts

When I was starting out, some authorities used to have area teams which dealt with both policy and DM. The principal disadvantage is that the constant rain of urgent jobs from the DM side means that the policy work never gets done.

To my mind, Development Management and Policy work under different pressures, different time horizons and different mind-sets. To merge the two would effectively be to wind up your policy team. If you have an up to date Local Plan and some capacity, you might be better off looking at whether you can help some of your neighbours. There is also danger in the notion that once the Local Plan is in place, the job is done. You need to be thinking about your update already.

Former Member, modified 9 Years ago.

RE: Joint Planning Policy and Development Management Team

My experience of managing DC/DM teams for most of my career and also being head of planning - I agree with Daniel - it is the relentless nature of DM, the volume of tasks already being prioritised and particularly the timescale/horizon difference that is the killer for policy making - DM takes over. However, I will be interested in any other responses you get where it has worked and what the secret to that is ( rigid time allocation?)

Jo Witherden, modified 9 Years ago.

RE: Joint Planning Policy and Development Management Team

Enthusiast Posts: 33 Join Date: 21/10/11 Recent Posts

My experience has been with managing the specialist support to DM (for example conservation, landscape or urban design experts). When these have been based in a policy team but with an expectation that they respond to the constant ‘rain’ of DM consults, as their line manager I was able to oversee how much of their time they spent on DM work and if necessary put in measures to ensure that it didn’t take over. When they were line-managed by a DM team leader, although there may have been an expectation for them to help in policy work it was much harder to get time released and I think the mindset of the officers themselves was much more DM driven. So if, at the start, you think the work is likely to be nearly 100% DM driven, it will be quite hard to swing the pendulum towards policy when the time comes, as it will inevitably mean a drop in standard which will be resisted.

TLDR – I agree with Daniel too!

Richard Crawley, modified 9 Years ago.

RE: Joint Planning Policy and Development Management Team

Expert Posts: 254 Join Date: 07/12/11 Recent Posts

In your position I think I would probably do the opposite of merging teams. I would separate them further.

DC team = local knowledge; work is 'urgent'

policy team = strategic knowledge; work is 'important'

So, see if you can work with your neighbours to employ a policy team that covers your shma area. Easily said, I know.

Former Member, modified 9 Years ago.

RE: Joint Planning Policy and Development Management Team

Thank you all for your responses, which are really helpful.

I would think that however well you manage the work prioritisation you cannot factor in the ups and downs of the market and political change on the different customer expectations from DM and policy.

Merged teams is an interesting idea but likely to lead to a loss of focus on the important strategic direction of the LPA and a lack of innovation in the implementation of DM. Distinct teams working closely together is my ideal - both Havant teams are currently working in a large hot desk open office and appear to be both sharing and maintaining focus. I do think the physical proximity of the teams play a big part - my other policy team at East Hampshire are quite separate and the sharing is something I am encouraging as there have been instances of consequential missing of important information.

Any further thoughts ont his would certainly be welcome.

Charlene Jones, modified 9 Years ago.

RE: Joint Planning Policy and Development Management Team

New Member Posts: 22 Join Date: 30/08/13 Recent Posts

I've worked in Policy and DM for the same authority - but not at the same time - and that has helped me understand both roles. I can't speak for them, but I think some of the Black Country authorities have been doing some job-sharing, it may be worth trying to contact them.