Planning team highly commended in Royal Town Planning Institute awards

Torridge's planning department have received a commendation at the Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI) regional awards ceremony recently held in Taunton. The RTPI is the professional body representing planners in the UK and Ireland responsible for maintaining professional standards and promoting and developing policy affecting planning and the built environment and has over 25,000 members.

Torridge were shortlisted for the prestigious "planning authority of the year" south west award and were up against many larger authorities in the competition. Judges heard that due to the nature of the area and in common with many other Councils the team had suffered significant staff shortages in recent years, which had impacted on performance. However, Torridge were recognised for having made a significant investment in training and willingness to support new staff through mentoring and career progression, which has since enabled the team to grow and retain personnel. The training was also noted for a focus on how to encourage good built development, pragmatic decision making and a conscious effort to reach out and engage with developers and private customers to overcome obstacles and achieve more positive outcomes.  

Torridge were narrowly beaten to the top spot by Bath and North East Somerset but judges were impressed with how a smaller more rural team had developed their recruitment and development programmes to improve the service. The judges went on to say how they found efforts to build a collective team spirit underpinned by a social committee to be "very heartening". They also cited examples of the services focus on farming initiatives and responding to local needs through regular engagement with service users. Collaboration with north devon council in a joint local plan and other joint initiatives were also seen as great examples of a rural authority not being limited by just its own resources. The well considered approach to dealing with all of these challenges led to the judge's award of a commendation for the team.

Councillor Rosemary Lock-  Lead Member for Planning said:

"Torridge officers should be proud to make both the short-list and then only narrowly missing out on the top spot. It is testimony to the hard work and diligence of the team to have overcome adversity and develop the service to be more supportive of staff and customers. Everyone involved should take great pride in this recognition from the RTPI, which is a great achievement for a smaller authority such as ours."

14 July 2023