Last Thursday we hosted a free training event at our offices in central Bristol to encourage tree professionals in the area to submit their works to trees and TPO applications online.
The event was the first of a series of activities we are delivering in partnership with our four neighbouring West of England local planning authorities (LPAs) to look at ways to improve the planning services they provide while reducing waste, costs and red tape. Read more…
I’ve been noticing an iPad or two appearing in meetings and in the office recently – brought from home and not government-subsidised, I hasten to add!
With tablet and smart phone sales surging and PC sales waning I’d be very interested to understand how colleagues in planning and building control are using mobile technology – be it a smart phone or a tablet or indeed something else – as part of their working day.
- Are any local authorities or inspectors using them for site visits?
- Any architects using any of the apps for basic (or maybe not so basic) drawings?
- Any plans to switch from traditional computing models to enable more mobile working?
- Does anyone use the Portal for information or accessing applications on a tablet or other device?
- Do you have any recommendations for essential apps for planning and building?
Please let me know by adding a comment below.
It’s National Transplant Week and any of you who know me of old will also know that this is a cause that is close to my heart kidney (Google “Chris Kendall Kidney” if you’re new here and want to know why).
If you’re not already on the Organ Donor Register then please consider it.
If you are on the register already, please take this reminder as an opportunity to talk to your family about your wishes. It’s important as around 30% of viable registered donors have their wishes overturned by their families in the event of their death.
With three people dying every day in the UK for want of a kidney thats just a bloody waste.
Thanks
(Soapbox now back in the cupboard)
I’m pleased to be able to let you know about a brand new service on the Portal and a new kind of collaboration between the Portal and its partners.
As you know, we’ve been in the business of developing useful tools for the planning system for some time.
The interactive guides, volume calculators, fee calculators and carbon calculators (to name a few) have all proved popular with users and there’s always a clamour for more.
Last year Portal applicants saved more than 8,000 tonees of CO2 by submitting their applications online.
The same as 40,000 trees could absorb in their lifetimes.
Following several comments decrying our decision to reduce the size and cost of our archive, I feel it is necessary to explain exactly what we are planning to do, and why this has no impact on anyone other than the original applicant. Read more…
Update: We have now completed this and all the CIL forms are now ‘fillable’ and can be accessed from this page.
Following several requests, we are in the process of amending the Community Infrastructure Levy PDF forms to let users fill, save and upload the electronic form as part of their online planning application.
The ‘Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) – Determining whether a Development may be CIL Liable’ form has now been published.
The other six CIL forms will be amended and uploaded shortly – we’re aiming to get these done within the next two weeks. I’ll keep you updated on timelines.
First, let me say that you have no idea how much self-restraint it took, to not head up this post with a tree- or sign-related pun, there are so many to choose from.
What follows is a pun-free note on how two respected trade associations have helped us drive online take-up in their respective industries for the benefit of their members and the environment. Read more…
I wrote to you recently about our decision to archive supporting documents on planning applications submitted more than five years ago. We’re going a step further with this in late July.
Over 1,000 applications are submitted to the Planning Portal every working day – this puts significant strain on our system storage.
If our system storage reaches capacity, and we don’t free up space, it will not be possible for new applications to be submitted to local planning authorities via the Portal. Read more…
The 1APP changes which went live last week have bedded in nicely. Users are reporting improved productivity and our service desk is reporting very few issues.
Most of the communications last week focussed on the changes to the Supporting Documents process but we also introduced some improvements just for LPAs. Read more…
Planning Portal Blog 