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CONCLUSIONS
97. It is worth noting that almost all of the responses were positive in tone. Most of the comments and criticisms were presented in a helpful and constructive way. It was clear from the responses received that local authorities and key stakeholders were keen to be involved in the assessment process to make the outcomes as productive as possible to ensure a better planning system.
98. Resources in planning authorities are already stretched and so any additional burdens should be avoided. It was suggested that the implementation of e-planning and better use of IT could help to address this issue.
99. While most of the responses supported the idea that managers or senior planners should be on the assessment team, the concerns were that staff would be removed from their existing job or being taken out of the recruitment pool adding to the resource shortage. Suggestions to counter these concerns include the use of recently retired senior planners, in particular those who had taken early retirement.
100. In addition to this, ongoing problems with the recruitment and retention of staff in planning were raised on several occasions. This needed to be addressed by forming stronger links with those providing training in planning as well as finding effective ways of sharing good practice across authorities.
101. It was strongly felt that the assessment should be based on the use of both quantitative and qualitative data. The use of qualitative information was seen to provide a better indication of how a planning authority was performing although simple qualitative measures were difficult to find.
102. Analysis shows that whilst there is broad support for many of the indicators suggested in the consultation paper, a number of them need to be refined, removed and others added, to allow for more qualitative information to be recorded. A number of suggestions were made across all the areas of measurement which could feed into a revised framework.
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