Why do the problems in the city's planning department matter so much? Because it’s a key part of the face Nottingham presents to home-grown business success stories and to potential inward investors. If you want to build an office or factory these are the people you'll discuss your plan with.
Logically the discussions will take place with experienced planners who understand what business tries to achieve. That doesn't mean they'll roll over and say yes to whatever business wants – developers can be a pushy crowd – but you would expect them to flag up any potential problems, suggest ways round them and, if the plan goes forward, make the case for approval to the city's development control committee.
Right at the top of the department, you'd also expect to see people who appreciate the economic importance of the development industry, and can talk their language while being heavyweight enough to fight the city's corner when crappy designs are drawn up. Jennifer Dearing clearly has those attributes. But she'll be leaving soon. And restructuring of the department has seen experienced hands leave.
So the problem for Nottingham is that planning struggles to convincingly tick either box. Worse, it's been struggling for sometime, with a series of abortive attempts to fill top jobs - which gives the impression that the city council leadership either doesn't fully appreciate this problem or doesn't think it's a top priority.
Anyway, two things will happen with this story on Tuesday. I'll be running a piece in the commercial property section of Business Post which suggests at least some of the criticism of pre-planning fees may have hit home. More importantly, the deadline will have passed for the receipt of applications for the £140k-a-year role of corporate director of development.
The office – one of the top strategic jobs in this £1bn-a-year authority – has had no permanent occupant for nearly a year.
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