April was a stunning month with 543,887 visitors making 1.2M visits to the site, averaging more than 40,000 visits a day.
This is the first time we’ve passed the half million mark.
This good news continues the growth trend across all key metrics which included more than 10M page views in the month.
There were also more than 30,000 planning applications submitted for the second month in a row.
Ten years ago this week (30.4.2003) the very first electronic planning application was submitted via the Planning Portal website, wending its way to Southwark, one of our early adopter authorities.
At that time we only supported a handful of forms. If memory serves – and trust me that’s a big ‘if’ – the first application was for a neon sign on the side of a building in Elephant and Castle. What began as a great idea has since become the de facto way of submission.
In that first year applications were counted in the low hundreds; today we are processing more than 25,000 each month.
Once the first application was submitted we turned our focus to convincing LPAs that this was the future and within less than 18 months we’d signed (almost) every one up.
A couple of years on and we began work on what was to become known as 1APP. More than 1.25m applications later I am glad to say that although there is still much work to be done; the case for digital is made.
I’d like to thank all those people at LPAs for their co-operation, agents, businesses and applicants for their patience and all my colleagues for their hard work and commitment.
Chris Kendall
Portal person man and boy!
There were:
319,610 Planning applications submitted, a 15% increase on 2011/12
2,066,525 Approved Documents downloaded, an increase of 24%
11,128,909 Visits to the website, an increase of 25%
2,595,200kg of CO2 was saved
The Portal cost a touch over £3m and delivered more than £130m of benefits, equating to £44 of benefit for every £1 spent.
I thought you might like to know that the Government is consulting on further regulatory reforms to the Community Infrastructure Levy (England only).
The consultation proposes changes to boost development and the building of new homes and businesses and covers a range of amendments to the regulations, related particularly to rate setting and the operation of CIL in practice.
Consultation closes on 28 May.
Take a look at the press release which should appeal to self-builders in particular.
You are probably already aware that the Building Regulations Approved Documents are available for download completely free of charge from the Portal.
Just in case you are not, I thought I would point out that there were more than 2.06m downloads in 2012/13 – that’s an amazing figure representing an almost 25% increase on 2011/12.
If it’s been a while since you last downloaded them you might like to know that recent changes to the Approved Documents from April 6th 2013 include:
- New edition of Approved document K
- Updates to approved document M
- Updates to approved document P
- Changes to designated warranty schemes
- Changes made to approved document N
Changes have been made to the common projects pages of the Portal and the text in interactive house to reflect the AD changes and the addition of information regarding the competent persons scheme.
Although he’s out in the sticks and hasn’t got gas yet, Robin our South West Account bloke is very proud to say that his Parish Council has now moved to a paperless planning committee process.
I’d like to congratulate and say well done to all at Dunkerton, Tunley and Withyditch Parish Council who recently, successfully applied for a grant from Bath & North East Somerset Council (BANES )to fund the purchase of a laptop and projector that enables them to project planning application documents onto large screens, becoming the first BANES Parish Counil to go paperless. Read more…
We’ve found that our interactive house is being frequently used by businesses to explain planning information to clients, whether it’s to explain why permission is not required for that bijou little extension or why it is not possible to chop down the ancient oak and build a new house for granny in the garden.
What businesses don’t lke though is using a tool that carries a competitor or other unaffilliated company’s advertising. In response we’ve stripped out the adverts and created a version of the house that can sit on a busineses own website in all it’s naked glory.
We call this “House Share” and for a very small fee it’s yours.
To see this in action visit C & L Windows website.
To begin the process of getting your own house contact our vibrant sales team (Tom and Anne) at sales@planningportal.gsi.gov.uk
The recent approval by the Secretary of State of the Liverpool Waters scheme brought to a conclusion the planning application process that witnessed the largest planning application yet submitted via the Portal.
It got me to thinking what other noteworthy applications have shimmied through our system into the real world, and being a nosey so and so I thought I ask you to provide the answers.
Large, small or particularly tricky, I ‘d love to hear your tales.
It’s been around five months since we launched our Smarter Planning campaign and I thought it might be a good time for a progress report.
The aim of Smarter Planning is try and remove the ‘them and us’ culture prevailing in some cases between LPA’s and Agents and to build a community of best practice, promoting growth through a more efficient means of submitting planning applications.
Therefore we’re actively accepting expressions of interest from both applicants and LPAs, providing training and advice and issuing accreditation. Read more…
Planning Portal Blog 