In all the excitement about reaching the one millionth application milestone (did I mention that?) I haven’t had a chance to update you on some other developments in the Portal in the last couple of weeks.
We’ve recently been working with the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) to improve their own application processes. Read more…
At the risk of sounding unremittingly positive I can report that our traffic figures for January were by some margin the best month we’ve ever had.
There were 898,020 visits, an increase of 23.6% from January 2011 and 70,000 more than our previous best month.
We were also just shy of 9 million page views, a 300,000 increase on the previous best.
Additionally there were 170,566 downloads of the Building Regulations Approved Documents, an increase of 20.5% on January 2011.
Finally, we also believe that we’ve passed our March 2012 target of 60% of planning applications online, but we’ll need to wait for the next quarter PS1 results to confirm it.
All in all, not a bad start to 2012 our 10th anniversary year.
On Friday, 19th of February at 4.07 o’clock our one millionth online planning application was submitted by a member of the public to Hinckley & Bosworth.
When we launched the Portal we had no idea whether the concept would work but we had a great passion to improve the planning process. Ten years on I believe we’ve made a positive impact.
Many of the original Portal team are still here and while some have moved on all have contributed enormously along the way.
We have always tried to work collaboratively with industry, Government and citizens and held the difficult ground between all three against a shifting political and economic landscape.
I would like to thank everyone that has contributed to this success, from LPAs to agents, architects and housebuilders, home improvers and plansmiths, colleagues, partners and friends.
Particular mention should be made of Graham Saunders who had the original idea for the Portal while at the Planning Inspectorate and to Richard Goodwin who as the Portal’s first director did much to establish the ethos and culture that enabled the team to flourish from the beginning.
Many LPAs helped and supported us along the way but I’d like to say a special thank you to Neil Coleman and Huntingdonshire District Council who were the first to sign up and to Martin Howell and Wandsworth who gave us invaluable help and support.
Here’s to the next million, which we anticipate will take less than three years.
Finally, a round up of the statistics. One million online planning applications has:
* Saved UK businesses and local authorities in the region of £285m
* Saved 32,000,000 pieces of paper (64,000 reams)
* Saved more than 8,000 tonnes of CO2
We anticipate our millionth application in the next hour – will it be yours?
Some valuable free publicity is available if it is.
As of 09.00am, Friday 17 February 2012 the total number of planning applications submitted online via the Portal was 999,308
The donuts have been purchased and the fizz is in the fridge.
I anticipate the millionth application being submitted either later today or early tomorrow.
At about 10:00 this morning the total number of online submissions processed by the Portal reached 998,281 leaving just 1,719 to go.
All about the Money
Using calculations originally supplied to us by KPMG and subsequently verified by business feedback we believe one million online planning applications has saved businesses and local authorities in the region of £285m – around £80m in this year alone.
Total savings delivered by the Portal between 2003- 2012 are around £450m set against a cost of less than £50m over the same period. Today every £1 invested in the Portal returns £24 in benefits to the UK economy.
I’m sure we can all imagine ways of spending that £285M saving. I for one would like to have spent some of it on improving my golf with a few lessons from Luke Donald (I dont think my wife would trust me to socialise with Tiger!).
I might also have spent a few bob getting Bradford City back in the Premiership.
But instead, being the generous folks that we are at the Portal we’ve shared that benefit around. I hope you feel we’ve helped and that your LPA or business has received some of that benefit. If not let us know and we’ll do our best to help.
If you have benefitted please let us know by commenting below.
By 9.20 this morning we have processed 997,130 online planning applications.
I can appreciate that this may not be as exciting for many of you as it is for me but the millionth online planning application represents a huge milestone in the Portals evolution.
When we set out to help e-enable the planning system many believed this was an impossible task. At the time only a very small number of LPAs were contemplating e forms and even fewer had the money or resources to make it happen.
Then as we began to look at creating a unified set of forms that later became 1App we calculated that there were around 12,000 local variations of the forms across England and Wales. This was no issue if you only submitted locally, but for the many thousands of businesses that submitted applications regionally or even nationally it presented a huge problem.
Whilst 1App may be far from perfect I contend that it has helped improve the system and delivered huge efficiencies. I know this to be true from the regular positive feedback I receive.
The millionth application is an opportunity for us to reflect on our journey and take a moment to celebrate our success which I think this is more important than ever right now.
We haven’t done this by ourselves and I’m not claiming the credit for the Portal alone, but for all the LPAs and Agents who saw this was the way forward and supported us and helped make e-planning a reality and for our policy colleagues thay have helped us keep 1App relevant and up to date.
Todays Statistic
If you were to lay out every piece of paper saved by applying online the surface area would be approximately 1,996km2 – that’s enough paper to cover West Sussex or Bristol, Swindon, Greater London and Nottingham combined.
Quite a number of you have responded to my posts on the recent changes to 1App by applauding the improvements but reminding me of the problem of file size limits.
As a result I thought it worthwhile reposting this entry which was first published on Valentines Day.
Thanks. Here it is…
We’ve been talking to some Portal users on Twitter recently about the issue of the 5MB limit on application attachments. We know it’s something that some users find a pain.
Rightly, in a time of superfast broadband (at least for some), why should we be constrained by a relatively small file sizes? Particularly for documents like Design and Access Statements where professional applicants may want to show things like architectural design and details in the best possible light. Read more…
Unbridled excitement is sweeping Portal Towers as our milestone approaches.
By 9.25 this morning we had processed a quite stupendous 996,021 online planning applications.
We anticipate reaching the magic million at some time on Friday.
But what has Dan the Portal’s stats supremo got for us today?
Just 3,979 applications to go…
I can’t tell you how excited I am to report that next week (Wednesday or Thursday) we will process our one millionth planning application.
For those of us who have been with the Portal since the beginning this is a momentous milestone, unimaginable at the start.
Although it’s taken us the best part of 10 years to get here nearly one third of that total have been processed in the last 12 months.
From today forward I’ll be updating the daily total as we get towards the millionth application which we expect on Wednesday or Thursday.
Each day Dan our statsman will provide a nugget of information to illustrate exactly what one million applications equates to while our IT partners IBM are providing the countdown
Day 1
As of 9.30am, Thursday 09 February 2012 the number of applications submitted was 992,127
Today’s stat
1,000,000 online planning applications saved approximately 32,000,000 pieces of paper which would weigh 150 tonnes, approximately the same as a mother blue whale and her calf or two dozen adult elephants.
or for those of us of a northern disposition that’s the same as 614,400 pork pies.
DAY 2
As of 9.30am, Friday 10 February 2012 the number of online applications submitted: 993,222
Today’s stat
1 Million online applications has saved approximately 64,000 reams of standard office copy paper, the equivalent of 3,600 trees.
But what does all that paper look like stacked up high I hear you cry.
Well it would make a very tall tower – 3,360m high. It’s over 4 times higher than the tallest building on Earth, and would be the same height as 7 Empire State Buildings, plus Canary Wharf on top!
DAY 5 As of 9.30am, Monday 13 February 2012 the number of online applications submitted was 994,879
If stacked in reams 1 Million online applications would build a 2M high wall around Regents Park (probably wouldnt get planning permission though!)
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