The Isle of Wight Council’s planning service has been recruiting temporary staff to help deal with an influx of planning applications, with the department seeing some of the busiest months for years.
Unusually high numbers of planning applications, enforcement and requests for work to protected trees have been coming in as the Island returns to normality after lockdown. Since September 2020 the department has experienced 8 out the 10 busiest months for planning applications received since January 2018.
It’s not just the number of planning applications that has gone up. The number of planning enforcement complaints increased by 37% during lockdown and there was a 24% increase in tree works applications in the year 2020-2021.
To help manage this increase, 4 temporary staff worked during May and June to deal with planning applications and enforcement. Planning bosses intend to take on further temporary staff to continue this work.
As well as helping deal with the build-up of post-lockdown work, the new staff helped to keep the department on track while permanent staff took much-needed holidays over the summer following what has been a challenging 18 months.
Planning manager Oliver Boulter explained:
“We always try to achieve the best possible outcomes for the Island, so we negotiate on planning applications where clear improvements can be made, which sometimes takes time.
“I know the big increase in planning applications, as well as other requests, has meant that people are having to wait longer than usual for us to get back to them.
Article continues below this advertisement “All the planning team, including our temporary colleagues, have been working hard to sort this out.
“If you want an update on your request or enquiry, we’ve got a dedicated email address to help you get it.
“The quickest way to get an answer is to email [email protected] and give us the reference number or location address.”
Councillor Paul Fuller, portfolio holder for planning and housing, said:
“I know that everyone’s application is important to them, and they want to progress it as quickly as possible.
“Please be assured that staff are getting through the work as quickly as they can, whilst they are still mainly based at home.
“I know they are providing high quality decisions and still seeking the best possible outcome for each application and enquiry – even under this extra pressure.
“We’ve put in place these new measures, but there will still sometimes be delays in responding to incoming calls, emails and letters.
“So please bear with us, and thank you for your understanding and patience”.
Earlier this year a controversial planning application for holiday accommodation in Love Lane, Bembridge was referred to the planning inspectorate as the Council failed to act quick enough.
Just say no to new houses on Greenland!!!!
We are a small island ….
Any housing needs to be affordable …..
We don’t need anymore 2nd home owners…….
Plenty of empty properties that can be redefined to help those in need of affordable housing…
We can hope that if any plans come up that are not good for the Island, if enough people put in sensible objections to the planning office they might not get passed. Power in numbers!!
In a fair world maybe. But we don’t live in a fair world, We live in a world where the people with the most amount of money have all the power and get their way no matter how many people object. Just look into what is happening over at Fawley, the locals didn’t want any of that, but it’s being forced on them anyway.
It won’t be long before the hole island is mostly concrete, brown envelopes will be a common practice..
Is this increase in applications because the council are trying to get in place their 252 page IPS, which unfortunately, so they say, will take 2 years to implement?
So, does this actually mean, any planning application before then will have to be passed no matter how large or wherever it is?
What they should be doing is reducing the size of the planning department, so that the applications are all slowed right down. Let the developers go elsewhere with there plans for great big houses-they are not needed here; affordable houses are needed, but the developers make less money on them, so they don’t offer them in their plans.
By the time any new legislation would come in to curtail all the house building on the Island , it will be too late as by that time it would have been swamped by new housing. It will be just a concrete jungle and no room for any more anyway, but by then they would have just moved on to destroy some other region so won’t care anyway as their massive sprawl of housing will already be in place covering what once was the “Garden Isle”,