Under the Freedom of Information Act, please list/provide me with:

1. The number of full time equivalent staff employed by your local authority in its Planning Department in the financial year 2010-11.
We do not hold this information. The Council has had a number of restructures since 2010, and we don't have a Planning Department as such. We have staff who are involved in Planning across a number of different teams and would be unable to report on staff from 2010-11s roles.

2. The number of full time equivalent staff employed by your local authority in its Planning Department in the financial year 2020-21.
We don’t have a Planning Department as such. We have staff who are involved in Planning related activities across a number of different teams and would need to clarify which should be included so that HR can provide figures. There was a transfer of staff from Customer and Localities to Place & Growth in January 2021.

3. The number of planning applications processed by your local authority in the financial year 2010-11.
The number is 1766. All Authorities have to report their planning application statistics to the Government and these are published.

4. The number of planning applications processed by your local authority in the financial year 2020-21.
We do not hold this information. The financial year 2020-21 has not yet ended. You will be able to view the information on the link in answer to question 3 in future.

5. Your spending on consultants to support planning services in the financial year 2018-2019
6. Your spending on consultants to support planning services in the financial year 2019-2020
7. Your spending on consultants to support planning services in the financial year 2020-2021
These last three questions require clarification as the Council went through a major restructure in 2018 with the 21st Century Council project. There are many teams across the Council that support Planning for example – ecology, trees, highways, IT, etc. We would need clarification as to what sort of consultants would be considered and which teams involved to seek information from them.