I would like to thank all of you who nominated me for this years Digital Leader Awards.
I was astonished to find myself on the shortlist of 10 central Government leaders which includes some very illustrious names indeed.
Now that I’ve made the list I’m keen to represent our industry and would welcome the platform to show how planning has led the way in the transformation of services from paper to digital.
All that’s required is for you to cast your vote if you feel it worthwile.
You may be aware that earlier this month Planning Minister Nick Boles announced a number of Statutory Instruments designed to make planning practice swifter and simpler. These were highlighted in a Portal news article.
New secondary legislation will complete the removal of the requirement for obtaining Conservation Area Consent when demolishing unlisted buildings in conservation areas, and from 1 October 2013 make these proposals subject to planning permission instead.
To facilitate this change on the Planning Portal we have needed to make minor amendments to existing application forms that included conservation area consent to ensure they reflect planning legislation only.
We shall be writing to all applicants with a conservation area consent application in draft advising them to check the certificate details of their application as this will now contain reference to the agricultural land declaration and be subject to planning permission.
The changes apply in England only and full details are provided here.
This is the second part of the round-up of last week’s Really Useful event in Durham. (For those who attended, this isn’t in the strict running order from the day.)
Continuing the theme of the day, Toni Sambridge of Sunderland City Council spoke about the service changes the council had implemented since 2006 to streamline their planning processes and make better use of technology.
A key recommendation was not to try to run parallel paper and online planning systems but to adopt the online system as the single master copy.
Sunderland publishes all representations received on applications electronically. This lets the council maintain an authoritative online copy.
In line with the Planning Portal’s recommendation, the authority also sends all correspondence to customers electronically, reiterating that it is committed to working electronically.
This approach has been well received by agents and planning professionals, most of whom now subscribe to the authority’s planning alerts notifications to keep them informed of progress with their applications.
In the final session, Shah Amin of Newcastle City Council outlined how the authority had made its move to digital-by-default and the ongoing changes being made to the council website. (Note the presentation may take a moment to load on slower networks.)
A key part of the website work is to focus on user journeys so that customers are presented with the right information at the right time and can move to different parts of the website without difficulty.
A key point to building an effective user journey is to identify the critical points where customers fail to complete tasks to make it easier for them to understand information and guidance.
This in turn will reduce avoidable contact by phone in the event of website content being unclear.
Presentations and resources from the event can be accessed below and if you have any questions please get in touch.
The presenters have advised that they are happy to discuss their projects in the interests of sharing best practice to achieve a channel shift of service delivery.
Thanks again to everyone for making it an enjoyable and useful event.
Resources from the day:
- All the presentations combined in one PDF (9MB file size).*
- Resource pack for LPAs including essential links and graphics.
- Part one of the Really Useful day round-up.
Last week we held another Really Useful event, this time in sunny Durham. This follows successful earlier events in Bristol and Huddersfield.
I’d like to thank our hosts and Local DirectGov and, of course, the guest LPA speakers for presenting and sharing the improvements they have made to their planning services and websites.
As always the focus of the Really Useful event was on encouraging a channel shift to new electronic ways of working for LPAs and customers.
Useful insight was again presented by Socitm in support of the event and how to strive for continuous improvement in technology and delivery of information.
Socitm’s Helen Williams outlined how planning services were often one of the poorest performing sections on council websites.
Even though some councils used identical back-end software, some performed much better than others simply by recognising the importance of building clear user journeys for customers.
She underlined the importance of focusing on customer needs when planning web pages.
Helen also gave us a comprehensive overview of Socitm’s annual Better Connected review. She added the provisional task list for ‘Better Connected 2014’ was on their website with a planning task to ‘Find out about a planning decision’. (You have been warned!)
More insight and advice for local authorities is available in the Socitm presentation.
We also received a presentation from our host Durham’s Allan Simpson on the introduction of a single unitary county council following the Local Government Review in 2009.
The project involved the consolidation the eight former districts into a single unitary.
They have recently awarded a contract for a new planning IT back-office system that will bring about further streamlined business procedures and processes across the planning department.
The new system will offer joined up services and use consolidate data from across the new unitary authority. The project identified the best elements from existing systems and build them into one process.
Learn more in Allan’s presentation.
I spotted this story in a local paper and thought you may be interested.
Stephen Brooks an architect based in Bath is working with the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation to realise an unbuilt FLW design in Wraxall near Bristol.
Self-proclaimed biscuit-loving architectural design practice Challinor Hall Associates of Eastbourne tweeted this week that they submitted a Householder Application via the Portal in just seven minutes.
In your face, paper submission!!!
Can you beat that?
Many agents are reluctant to pay planning application fees on clients’ behalf at the same time as submitting online because it is widely believed that billing clients for those fees later is subject to VAT.
So the preferred method for most agents remains asking the client to provide them with a cheque for the fee, which is posted to the LPA.
And one of the most common reasons LPAs are unable to register and validate applications is that the cheque is either held up in the post, or does not include the Portal reference and cannot be reconciled with the application – a waste of time and effort for everyone
But these fees need not be subject to VAT. Read more…
So the kids are back to school, the roads are full and the weather is about to break. I guess that’s Summer done then.
I’m sorry I’ve been a little quiet over the last few weeks (blessed relief I hear you cry!) but it’s not because the team and I have been soaking up the sun. In fact quite the opposite – it’s been very, very busy.
You can’t have helped but notice that we launched the Beta version of the website for the National Planning Practice Guidance and NPPF over the summer.
In addition, we’ve also been working on lots of changes to various elements of 1APP forms and PD processes to be announced over the coming weeks.
We’ve achieved lots despite various members of the team almost hacking off limbs, spraining ankles, having babies and various other completely avoidable incidents.
For myself I’ve either been driving around the country talking to potential future partners (business not personal!) or I’ve been head down in spreadsheets and documents preparing to respond to DCLG’s call for responses regarding the privatisation of the business. It’s been a slog and I’m not sure which is going to conk out first, me or the car.
Well the deadline for responses is upon us and our proposal is good to go.
Hopefully there is now a work-free weekend ahead before it all begins again.
Watch this space for lots of important notices in the next few weeks including information on Conservation Area consents, handling disbursements, Smarter Planning and PINs role in determining planning applications.
We have now updated the CIL additional information form on the Portal.
The form and accompanying guidance notes have been amended to take account of changes to the CIL regulations and comments received from a number of authorities using the form.
The main changes to the form include:
- questions in relation to minor material amendment (Section 73) applications
- including summary information on non-residential floorspace
- changes to the questions on retained and demolished floorspace
The revised CIL form has been published and is now available from the Portal.
The form and guidance both have unique URLs (web links). This ensures LPAs can easily reference them on their websites and in any other communications.
CIL additional information form
CIL additional information guidance
To date, 19 LPAs have introduced a CIL as detailed below and all London Boroughs administer the London Mayoral CIL.
- Barnet
- Brent
- Bristol
- Broadland
- Croydon
- East Cambridgeshire
- Elmbridge
- Fareham
- Greater London Authority
- Havant Borough Council
- Huntingdonshire
- Newark & Sherwood
- Norwich City
- Redbridge
- Plymouth
- Poole
- Portsmouth
- Shropshire
- Wandsworth
- Waveney
- Wycombe
Thanks again to our good friends in Wandsworth for their help in coordinating this work and to all those that provided feedback to improve the form and guidance.
The need for further changes to the form will be assessed following the publication of the amendments to the CIL Regulations expected later in 2013.
Communities Secretary Eric Pickles has urged local authorities to clamp down on illegal encampments and unauthorised traveller sites.
His call came as the Department for Communities and Local Government published a new guide detailing the range of powers available to local authorities to remove unauthorised traveller sites, protest camps and squatters from both public and private land. The guide has been sent to the leader of every English local authority.
Pickles said: “I want all councils to be ready to take action straightaway to stop illegal camps and unauthorised sites starting in the first place. Decisive action early on saves money and unnecessary upset for local residents.
“We’ve strengthened councils’ powers so they have the confidence to take decisive action. Too often, council officers wash their hands, and say nothing can be done. This is not the case.
“The public want to see fair play, with planning rules enforced consistently, rather than special treatment being given to certain groups.”
The measures highlighted include:
- more powerful temporary stop notices to stop and remove unauthorised caravans
- pre-emptive injunctions that protect vulnerable land in advance from unauthorised encampments
- possession orders to remove trespassers from land;
- police powers to order unauthorised campers to leave land
- powers of entry onto land so authorised officers can obtain information for enforcement purposes
- the right to demand further information on planning works to determine whether any breach of the rules has taken place
- enforcement notices to remedy any planning breaches
- ensuring sites have valid caravan or tent site licences.
Read the Department for Communities and Local Government news release.
Roger Milne
16 August 2013
Please note that Portal news articles normally appear on the main site. They’ve been published on the blog due to a technical issue.
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