By Eric Nicolson

IMPROVEMENTS HAVE been made to Perth and Kinross Council’s under-fire planning application service, councillors will be told tomorrow.

A presentation by the council’s head of planning, Roland Bean, will set out where he says progress has been made over the last year and will outline what still needs to be done to continue to improve the services delivered to residents and developers.

Mr Bean will address members of the council’s scrutiny committee.

In January an audit review of the planning process found it to be “weak” in a number of key areas.

It concluded council employees had undermined public confidence in the authority.

Numerous failings in the way the council dealt with planning applications were identified and it was found that documents relating to almost 30% of applications had been misfiled by staff.

The report stated, “Given the close public scrutiny to which planning processes are subjected, such administrative errors have a negative impact on the reputation of Perth and Kinross Council.”

In one particularly-worrying case, a personal application submitted by a planning officer was evaluated by one colleague, then approved by another without any external scrutiny.

Mr Bean will tell councillors, however, that over the past year, the service has shown marked improvements in the time taken to deal with planning applications, and increased the number of applications determined by 14%.

This, he will point out, has been achieved without an increase in staff while the number of applications received by the council has continued to increase, and without affecting the quality of decisions, as seen by a reduction in the proportion of successful appeals.

The scrutiny convener, Councillor Kathleen Baird, commented, “There is still significant work to be done.

“However progress has been made, and we are supportive of the efforts of staff in achieving this.

“The scrutiny committee is here to ensure they continue with their improvement work, and ensure that the citizens of Perth and Kinross receive the level of service they need.”

Ironically, when the January audit was made public, Mrs Baird was one of several councillors who expressed her concerns.

She said then that the committee which decides the fate of planning applications has been in “turmoil” for years and claimed a lack of consistency has left members of the public, and even councillors, unaware of which applications might be approved and which should be rejected.

She said in January, “Development control has been in turmoil for the last couple of years.

“Nobody ever knows what might be acceptable and what might not.

“It has been an absolute minefield, with nobody really knowing what is going on.

“It is totally unacceptable. There have been inconsistencies but clearly everyone in Perth and Kinross should be able to be satisfied that their application will be dealt with in the same manner.”