This document discusses relationships between members (elected officials) and officers (local government employees) in local planning authorities. It notes that both members and officers are committed to public service and deal with the same customers and challenges. However, tensions sometimes arise due to political pressures and cultural differences between the policy-focused members and management-focused officers. The document provides advice on establishing reasonable expectations of each role, focusing the relationship on partnership, mutual respect, and clear communication to minimize conflicts when delivering planning services.

1. Member officer relationships
www.local.gov.uk
“Let’s be friends”
Officer/Member relations
PAS Spring Conference
Birmingham
Seltzer Cole
LGA Associate Consultant

2. “Introduce a 'Presumption against Interference' in the
planning system with residents acting as quality control,
rather than officials. Change of Use restrictions should be
limited to clear externalities, and local plans should be
drastically stripped back – no density targets, or top down
regulation of minutiae like car spaces, bike standards or
the number of hotel rooms. If less than half of the people
in the immediate vicinity object, planning permission
should automatically be granted subject to appropriate
compensation.”
Policy Exchange 'Economics Manifesto' (February 2015)
Planning 'under siege'

3.  Both are committed to public service
 Both try to deliver quality planning services
 Both deal with the same customers
 Both face the same/similar challenges and
constraints
 Both have a community leadership role to play
Officers & Members: they're
all in it together

4. The political environment, especially on planning issues
Sense of mutual suspicion
Balancing competing interests/demands
External pressures/challenges
Further complicated by:
Cabinet/scrutiny relations
Cabinet/backbencher relations
Administration/opposition relations
Cultural differences
However, things sometimes
go wrong. Here's why:

5.  “They have a tendency to be obstructive.”
 “I don’t trust them.”
 “What exactly is it that they do?”
 “There’s always a legal reason to not do what we want.”
 “They’re totally risk averse when it comes to regeneration.”
 “The council would work much better without them interfering.”
 “They have a tendency to let politics gets in the way.”
 “Slagging us off in public reduces public confidence.”
 “They get ambushed by a resident complaining about the new
Tesco, then come and give us a kicking.”
 “They’re totally risk averse on developing brownfield sites!”
A sense of mutual suspicion

6. Policy
Range of 'influencers'
Self
Values
Beliefs
Friends
Party
Group
Image
Cost / VFM
Risk
Priority
Timing
Impact
Benefits
Leader
Electorate
Senior
officers
Social/Media
Wife/Partner
Colleagues
Manifesto
Resources
Family
Religion
Opinion
polls
Professional
Officers reports
Community
leaders
Pressure groups
Past
experience
Staff
Current events
Me

7. Member/Officer cultural differences
Characteristic Politicians Managers
Values and
philosophy
Political and party values Professional and managerial
values
Conversation and
language
• ‘What do you hear?’
• Storytelling about real
events
• Interests and symbols
• ‘What do you know?’
• Reports based on data,
information, money,
people and things
Authority and career • Representatives who
make choices
• Political allegiances,
experience and promises
• Power
• Conflict, compromise,
change
• Rely on votes
• Experts who organise and
deliver
• Professional experience,
credibility and fit
• Knowledge
• Harmony, co-operation,
continuity
• Rely on position
Performance • Respond to the public
wanting practical results in
the shortest time
• Respond to performance
indicators and longer term

8. A commitment to the local planning authority as an
entity in itself, rather than to individual political group(s)
A mutually beneficial working partnership
A timely response to enquiries and complaints
Professional advice, not influenced by political views or
preference
Integrity, mutual support and appropriate confidentiality
Reasonable member
expectations of officers

9.  Political leadership, direction and understanding of
the planning process
A mutually beneficial working partnership
Distance from the day-to-day management of the
authority
Not to use influence or pressure to gain special
treatment for themselves or others
An understanding of the need for work/life balance
Reasonable officer
expectations of members

10. Division of labour
Politicians Managers
Leadership Lead role Negotiated role
Management Negotiated role Lead role
Management deals with complexity – making
happen what should be happening.
Leadership deals with change – making
happen what wouldn’t normally happen.

11. What areas of leadership should managers
engage with and what areas of management
should members engage with, in planning?
'Leadership vs Management'

12. Invest in the relationship
Establish protocols based on exemplary behaviour
Recognize different strengths and perspectives
Be clear about roles and responsibilities
Emotional Intelligence
Partnership working based on:
Mutual respect
Honesty
Openness and transparency
Ground rules for success

13. Acknowledge that conflict is inevitable (Humans!!!)
Identify the source(s) and cause(s) of the conflict
Avoid 'bad communication'
Agree a commons set of values, goals & purposes
Use established procedures, 'institutions', channels
& forms only as a last resort!
What to do when things go
wrong

14. Action plan: 'less conflict, less
'competition', more collaboration'
“A collaboration is a purposeful relationship in
which all parties strategically choose to cooperate
in order to accomplish a shared outcome….
….You are a collaborative leader once you have
accepted responsibility for building – or helping to
ensure the success of – a heterogeneous team to
accomplish a shared purpose.”
Hank Rubin, President – Institute of Collaborative Leadership

15. Member officer relationships
www.local.gov.uk
Thank you for listening!
Seltzer Cole
Associate Consultant, LGA