A PAT on the back has been given to Blaenau Gwent planners who have achieved the best results in the country in one of the Welsh Government planning performance measures.

At a meeting of Blaenau Gwent County Borough Council’s Planning committee on Thursday, September 5 councillors were presented with a report detailing how the authority’s Planning Department performed between January and the end of March, which is the fourth quarter (Q4) of the 2023/2024 financial year.

The department has also put the latest data released by the Welsh Government in August into a table format.

This is so that councillors can judge how Blaenau Gwent planners stack up against their counterparts in all other 25 local planning authorities in Weles.

The report shows an improved performance on the previous reporting period from October to the end of December last year.

The data shows that council planners decided 95 per cent of applications inside the time scale – which is an eight-week period, or an extended time agreed with an applicant.

This is up from 89 per cent during the October – December period and is above the Q4 Welsh average of 87 per cent.

This sees Blaenau Gwent in sixth place in the league table for all of Wales’ 25 local planning authorities and up from 12th in the previous quarter.

Development and estates service manager Steve Smith said: “We’re in the playoff zone.”

On the second measure, it took Blaenau Gwent planners 76 days to decide each application, which is less than the 116 days average across Wales.

This was an improvement from 83 days in the previous quarter and sees the county borough top the table ahead of neighbouring Caerphilly Council who are in second place.

In the October to December reporting period, they had been joint fourth of the 25 local planning authorities in Wales.

Mr Smith said: “This is our preferred indicator, and you can see we sit proudly at the top of the table.”

The last measure the council uses is how many planning applications decided by councillors at Planning Committee, went against the recommendation of planning officers at meetings.

This had been a historic issue in the county borough but has improved over the last couple of years.

For January to end of March period, councillors on the Blaenau Gwent Planning committee had not gone against any planning officer recommendations when deciding applications at meetings, while the average across Wales was nine per cent.

A further 13 Welsh planning committees had also not gone against planning officer recommendations during quarter four.

Committee chairwoman, Labour’s Cllr Lisa Winnett said: “It’s an extremely pleasing report because the department have been under extreme pressure.

“So, it’s a massive well done to the team for the results they have got.”

The committee noted the report.

All 22 council’s in Wales deal with planning applications as do the National Park Authorities of Bannau Brycheiniog (Brecon Beacons), Eryri (Snowdonia) and Pembrokeshire Coast.