Monday 20 February 2012
The Environment Department has shown its commitment to improving its planning service, the Scrutiny Committee reports.
The Committee has published a monitoring report following up the action taken against the recommendations contained in its report "Guernsey's Planning Service: Post-Shepley Review'.
The report outlines the Environment Department's progress in implementing improvements to its planning service as recommended by the Committee, and the strides it has taken in 2011 to introduce new initiatives to increase the accessibility and openness of the planning function.
Scrutiny Committee Chairman, Deputy Barry Brehaut, said:
"The Committee is pleased to report that the Environment Department has taken its review report's comments and recommendations on board and made significant progress against each. The Department has also introduced a number of initiatives in 2011 - including the introduction of Open Meetings, the Customer Survey held in the Summer, the launch of the review of the Island's Development Plans - which should further engage the Department's stakeholders and increase the openness and transparency of the service".
The report also details the progress made by the Policy Council against the recommendations directed to it, in particular seeking to update the mandate of the Strategic Land Planning Group and working to produce a publication on the various roles, responsibilities and where accountability rests, for planning policy, forward planning and operations. However, the 'governance' recommendations made by Shepley have remained largely unresolved.
Deputy Brehaut said:
"From the information provided to it, the Committee believes there is an insufficient evidence base, at present, to warrant particular changes to the structure of the Department. If the Policy Council remains committed to considering the location of the planning function, it is likely that there will be an opportunity for this to be determined in the near future, if the Requête seeking a comprehensive review of the structure and functions of the government and legislature is successful when debated in March 2012".
ENDS
Information to Editors
Copies of the monitoring report and original review report are available on the 'Published Reports' page of the Scrutiny website or in hard copy on request from the Scrutiny Office at Sir Charles Frossard House.
Chris Shepley April 2008 report 'Review of Guernsey's Planning Service' can be found at the following link: www.gov.gg/article/7015/Review-of-Guernseys-Planning-Service
Contact information:
Christine Foster
Scrutiny Projects Officer
Tel: 01481 717133
E-mail christine.foster@gov.gg
