Ealing Planning To Set Records
Borough
councils for speed of planning approvals
Ealing Council is the fastest council in London for deciding planning
permission, with 92% of all applications decided in 8 weeks, according
to new figures from the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister. The figures
are for the last quarter of 2003.
"What makes these figures so important is that Ealing has the fourth
highest number of applications in London, after Westminster, Barnet and
Richmond," said Cllr John Delaney, chair of the regulatory committee.
"The turnaround in this department has been fantastic. It began last
year with a critical cabinet decision to invest in the service, a decision
based largely on faith in the council managers. While this is good news,
we're still not quite there yet in terms of success. We are pleased with
the speed of decision making and want further improvements, but we're
dedicated to maintaining the quality of our decisions. The key to success
is achieving and preserving an effective balance."
Cllr. Delaney added that he wanted to ensure our communities continue to play an important role in the process. He pointed out that as the service improves the Council qualify for extra government funding, making it cheaper to run, whichhe hopes would lead to lower taxes.
The council's
development control and planning staff delivered a 22% increase in performance
for 2003, in spite of an 8% rise in applications. These new figures bring
Ealing into the top ten councils for this in London for last year.
February 6, 2004