To receive an update from the Assistant Director – Planning and Strategic Infrastructure.

The Chairman welcomed Pranali Parikh, Director of Economic Development and Councillor Tom Ashton, Portfolio Holder for Planning to provide Members with an update.

The Portfolio Holder for Planning was pleased to be in attendance to support positive and significant updates on progress with planning enforcement following attendance at the earlier Overview Committee meeting on 11th June 2024, Minute No. 7 refers.

The Director of Economic Development assured Members on the importance of completing the 18 different actions following the caravan scrutiny work - ‘To explore the issues surrounding caravan licensing and enforcement’ and expressed her commitment to delivering the Council’s ambitions, pages 82 to 89 refer.

In relation to recommendations No 1 and 2 (pages 92 and 83 of the Agenda refer), the Director of Economic Development advised Members that an additional enforcement officer had been employed to improve capacity and that increased teamworking and liaison was being undertaken between the Licensing and Council Tax teams and the Enforcement department.

In relation to recommendations No 3 to 18 (pages 83 and 89 of the Agenda refer), the Director of Economic Development further assured Members that significant progress had been made in the last few months through liaising with multiple departments including emergency planning and that three recommendations remained outstanding until capacity issues had been resolved.

The Director of Economic Development continued to explain that a three phased approach was being undertaken to address the outstanding actions.  Members were further advised on a number of additional steps that had been taken which included the sharing of information with the emergency planning team, a public register of caravan sites which had been published on the Council’s website, the alignment of content on the Council’s Caravan and Council Tax webpages, the improvement of back-office systems to enhance staff efficiency and that contact had been made with the evaluation office to verify that the caravan park evaluations had been carried out correctly.

In relation to recommendations No 9 to 14 (pages 87 and 88 of the Agenda refer) and in reference to the fees and charges for Caravan Parks, the Director of Economic Development explained to Members that the Council was only able to charge Council Tax for the 24 residential sites.

In relation to recommendation No 16 – ‘To consider reviewing the Planning Policy in relation to caravan sites and restrictions as part of the Local Plan review’ (page 89 of the Agenda refers), Members were advised that that inclusion of a policy would be considered during the review of the Local Plan that was currently underway and that the Planning Policy Committee was actively involved in monitoring and shaping the process. 

The Director of Economic Development concluded that work would focus on addressing capacity and resources within the team over the next few weeks and that the work on caravan enforcement and licensing in relation to unauthorised occupation would be presented to the Executive Board by early 2025.

Members were invited to put their comments and questions forward.

·         The Chairman offered thanks and appreciation from hearing of the great amount of work being undertaken.

·         A Member commented on the longstanding caravan enforcement issues spanning 40 years and was pleased to hear that the Council was now focused on the task at hand.

·         A Member queried whether it was possible to check whether a caravan site was residential by looking on the ELDC website.  In response, the Director of Economic Development confirmed that was correct.

·         A Member commented that all caravan sites should be made residential to negate the issues.

·         Councillor Wendy Bowkett as Heritage Champion commented on past issues highlighted by residents in relation to caravan sites where occupants were not authorised to live on them as permanent residential sites and welcomed the progress being made to register occupants of sites and undertake enforcement.

The Chairman thanked the Director of Economic Development for her informative update.