Seaside project towns receive £16m funding
Some 20 English seaside towns are being allocated a total of £16m in project finance courtesy of the government’s Coastal Communities Fund administered by Communities and Local Government.
The schemes – which will benefit from grants of up to £2.6m – will deliver nearly 4,000 jobs, support 250 new business start-ups and create more than 1,500 apprenticeships and 400 volunteering opportunities. Read more…
A significant amount of our traffic comes from referrals (incoming links) from local planning authority websites.
In fact, around one in five (the figure varies) of site visitors arrive at the Planning Portal on journeys that started on a LPA website.
As such we’re keen that local planning authorities link effectively to our website to make sure the experience for users is as straightforward as possible. Read more…
Young architects and designers who have been in practice for no more than five years are invited to participate in a competition to design a housing project for the Island of St Helena in the South Atlantic Ocean.
Sounds like fun and the site visits could be spectacular.
Good luck.
The Planning Portal data elves have been busy this month presenting the total number and fee value of applications submitted through the Portal on a Google map.
The first map shows the total number and type of applications submitted via the Portal in January 2013.
Note this doesn’t represent every application submitted during the month as some were submitted on paper (we’re still working on that…). Read more…
‘Red tape’ and planning? Surely not.
In addition to the publication of the NPPF, recent changes to PD and the ongoing Taylor Review of planning guidance, the Government is looking to reduce the amount of unnecessary regulations affecting planning and building.
The Red Tape Challenge is being run by the Cabinet Office and is an invitation to the people who deal with regulations day-in, day-out to have their say on what’s holding back the industry.
The current theme is Planning Administration and looks at how we could make the administrative process underpinning the system more efficient and accessible.
It’s not looking at policy and is committed to ensuring that countryside and environmental protections continue to be safeguarded.
If you want an opportunity to highlight areas where you think the system can be made simpler, clearer and easier for people to use, now is your chance.
Over the next five weeks the website will be inviting views on around 180 planning administration regulations across four areas:
- Planning procedure (regulations associated with the development and use of land)
- Planning infrastructure and major projects (including minerals)
- Planning authorities regulations specific to certain geographical areas, including Mayor of London powers and development corporations
- Local planning (regulations associated with local plan making)
You can share your views on the Red Tape Challenge website.
I published an article on Doncaster’s project to go paperless last year.
At the time there were a number of questions relating to how the authority dealt with site visits, viewed large drawings on screen, the IT kit required and how councillors were engaged.
In this blog post (originally submitted as a comment on the original article), Doncaster’s development management principal officer Jenna Rumley offers another review of the authority’s operations one year on and answers some outstanding questions from the last post. Read more…
Now I know you are a shy lot and like to keep your opinions to yourselves but I thought I would make you aware of an opportunity to have your say on the topic of application process simplification.
“Who cares!” I hear you all shout but just in case you want to influence the future of such things as: simplifying the requirements for design and access statements, improving the validation stage and requirements around local authority decisions notices, I have included the link to the consultation for you.
You have until March 4th, 2013 to opine, go on, don’t be shy!
Thanks go to John Danahay in our hard working account team for the following article.
Chris
With electronic submission via the Planning Portal regularly exceeding 60% of applications (and as much as 80% for some LPAs), an increasing number of LPAs no longer print a copy of a Portal application at all.
This lets these LPAs make cost savings but still maintain, or even improve, determination times, particularly of smaller applications.
At these LPAs planning administration and technical staff can accurately check plans and drawings on-screen using on-screen measurement software. Planning officers can access the electronic case files and some even use a laptop or tablet on a site visit.
Many consultees also view planning documents on-screen via the LPA’s website and comment online and most applications have been electronically presented at committee meetings for a few years now. However, for LPAs to get the best from electronic working there may need to be some changes to the traditional way in which a planning application is packaged and presented. Read more…
We’ll be holding an event for LPAs in West Yorkshire in February on the benefits and challenges facing local authorities undertaking channel shift strategies.
Now that online submission of planning applications has become the norm, we’re continuing to work with LPAs on effective methods to help drive the percentage of electronic apps even higher.
In addition, we’re looking at ways LPA websites can improve their user journeys and make use of existing content and advice on the Planning Portal.
Back in October we ran a similar event with local authorities in the South West. This was a well-attended day with speakers from Socitm and a workshop on how to develop effective user journeys and customer-facing planning websites.
The day was attended by around 30 LPAs and general feedback was good. So good, we’re running another in Kirklees, West Yorkshire, on the 13th February. We expect invites to go out at the start of next week.
We also picked up the following post from Shropshire Council’s development team blog about how they used some of the user-centred design techniques covered in the event to good effect while planning the redesign of their own planning pages.
Here’s a link to the User Journey presentation (2.7MB PDF) from the event in October. It’s an introduction to practical methods for designing web pages for your customers. The workshop was run by a user experience expert who kindly gave permission to share the presentation.
Finally, here’s yet another link to our guidance on linking to the Portal effectively.
I was mostly eating and also building Lego Star Wars ships with my boy (other construction models are available – but they’re rubbish!)
However it appears there were 14 planning applications submitted online via the portal on Christmas Day.
223 were submitted on New Years Eve and another 93 apps on New Years Day.
It would appear that the majority of these applicants were men!
Planning Portal Blog 