A large consultancy recently gave me some interesting data on the direct cost savings of electronic submission. This is extremely valuable information, especially now whilst all of us in the sector must prove our worth.
We need more though to make our case for survival more powerful. As a result I’ve created a table based on the original sent to me which I’d be very grateful if you could take a few minutes to complete.
This is clearly less than scientific and will only offer a snapshot but it will nevertheless help me make our case.
Please email the eSaving fact find table back to me as soon as you can, I will aggregate and anonomise all of the responses, so no danger of any commercial confidences being broken.
Thanks
Chris
We have recently received a few queries regarding the introduction of the South Downs National Park Authority (SDNPA) as a new Planning Authority from 1st April 2011 and what changes will be needed to accommodate the new National Park on the Planning Portal.
From 1st April 2011, the South Downs National Park Authority (SDNPA) will be responsible for all planning in the National Park. The SDNPA expects to receive up to 4,000 planning applications a year, making it the 8th largest Planning Authority in the country although it has an agreement with the 15 Local Planning Authorities (LPAs) within the National Park who will provide the majority of the day to day planning services on its behalf.
The SDNPA will, however, determine some of the more significant applications itself, and retain overall policy control, but in partnership with the 15 LPAs. The partnership agreement allows LPAs to participate in local planning decisions and helps to provide a seamless transition to all users of the planning system within the National Park. Read more…
I thought it about time I brought you all up to speed on our plans for the coming year and beyond.
You can’t have failed to notice we are in uncertain times so I’ll stress these are our plans and like all plans they may change, in some cases slowly as trends and issues emerge in others the changes may be more radical.
For now this is what we’re up to on the most pressing issues.
1APP
The long awaited upgrade begins here.
There will be small changes to the existing system between now and April to meet legislative requirements. However we have separately kicked off a project through which we hope to deliver the root and branch improvements many of you have been calling for.
The project will include workstreams looking at the policy content and technical delivery whilst focus will also be given to the needs of business users through a commercial workstream.
The work will be overseen by a board which includes representation from the LPA and Business community with further invites pending across both communities to drive the workstreams. We hope to ensure we get it right by inviting some truly critical friends into the groups.
All previous feedback has been collated and will inform the early stages of development which will move forward assuming the business plan stacks up and can be funded. Expect lots more information on this topic in the weeks to come.
Local Planning
We are currently talking with colleagues in LPAs and in the Department to work out what our role in Local Planning should be. I’d be delighted to hear your views on the matter as well. You may be interested to know that one idea being discussed is the use of a localised version of the Interactive House to explain the local variances under an LDO to citizens and developers.
In the meantime we will continue to use the “In Your Area” section of the website to publish relevant information.
Governance
The Minister has challenged us to continue the revenue growth seen in the last 12 months to the point where we become self financing. I hope you’ll agree that whilst the Portal may be a long way from perfect we do bring benefits to the system.
Consequently our plan is to recover much of our costs from the areas where most benefit is delivered and to fill any gap with commercial revenues. All in all we need to generate £1M this year so please don’t be shy, if you want the Portal around in future speak to your marketing teams and point them in our direction.
Running alongside the above some of you will be aware that the Portal is currently the subject of a review into our future, focussing particularly on the financing. Interviews are currently underway with a broad spectrum of partners and stakeholders and the review team anticipate delivering an initial report in late March or early April.
There will be opportunities for more widespread input from the community as work progresses.
Online planning
The need to simplify and improve the planning application process has not gone away and even though more of you than ever are submitting online we must not lose focus. We are currently considering our strategy for 2011/12. The economic and environmental benefits of online submission are clearer than ever especially at a time where Local Authorities are very focussed on channel shift to online. I anticipate the aforesaid 1App improvements will help in this matter but I would welcome any thoughts on where you think other opportunities may lie.
Well that’s all for now, as always get in touch by commenting or use the email contact at top left if you prefer. Thanks for helping us through 2010 and in advance for your support through the challenging year ahead.
Over recent months the Planning Portal has been working closely with local authorities by holding work shops for planning professionals that wish to learn more about submitting applications online.
The events which have been held at council offices have proved successful and feedback has been very positive.
The workshops have been an opportunity for paper submitting agents to see how the planning portal can help them and save money on each application, learn more about the tools available, as well as the chance for a Q&A session at the end of the workshop.
The next event scheduled to run is:
Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council
Friday 11th February 2011
A member of the Portal team will be on hand to answer any questions regarding other tools featured on the site, and provide any one-to-one assistance with individual queries about our services.
There will also be an opportunity for general planning queries to be discussed with representatives from the local planning authority.
Alternatively if you are from a local authority and interested in working with us to drive e-planning please contact Scott Alford at scott.alford@planningportal.gsi.gov.uk
As you are aware, we are constantly looking at ways to improve our site and so I thought you may be interested to see some of the changes we made during our most recent update.
You can view a full list of the changes in this pdf
I hope you find it interesting and informative and, as always, if you have any suggestions as to how we can communicate this information better, we would like to hear them.
Aztech Architecture have just become the 20th business to take the ‘Carbon Pledge’.
Essentially the pledge represents a promise to submit all planning applications online, thereby reducing the environmental cost of the process. Whilst individually this may seem like a pointless exercise it is worth noting that in 2010 e-planning took more than 20,000 tonnes of CO2 out of the application process. 2.9 tonnes of which came from a single planning application.
In return for saving the planet each business is entitled to use the ‘Planning for a Greener future’ logo on their websites, stationery and marketing material.
Many of the companies display copies of the Pledge on their premises and we publish their details on the Portal.
I’d like to encourage as many companies as possible to use our Carbon Calculator to accurately establish the CO2 savings you have (or might in future) achieve.
You can use this information to then beef up the results in your Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) statements which are seen by many as a means of winning new business in a market increasingly aware of all things green.
To find out more please contact our own jolly green giant, Stuart Mockford.
Thought you might be interested to know who’s been making the running in running down paper.
Almost 70% of LPAs received more than 40% of their applications online during Q2 2010, with 98 LPAs receiving more than 50% of their applications online.
The top 20 were
Ealing 96.0%
Hinckley and Bosworth 79.7%
Cotswold 68.3%
Hackney 68.2%
Lambeth 67.0%
Hartlepool UA 66.7%
Brecon Beacons NPA 65.5%
Islington 64.9%
North West Leicestershire 64.1%
King’s Lynn and West Norfolk 63.0%
Coventry 62.2%
Newcastle upon Tyne 61.5%
Hammersmith and Fulham 61.5%
Southwark 61.3%
Stratford-on-Avon 60.8%
Newcastle-under-Lyme 60.7%
Hastings 60.7%
Hambleton 60.2%
Southampton UA 60.1%
Charnwood 59.7%
The Portal like everyone else is feeling the squeeze, so I hope you’ll forgive me saying a quick thank you to the following folks who have recently helped us out by sponsoring the site.
Not that it is in any way altruistic as we are the number 1 website in our sector don’t you know.
The following businesses have become the first to take up sponsorship of the Interactive Mini Guides and associated content pages. Each sponsor has exposure on the relevant content page, the Interactive Mini Guide and the downloadable PDF of that Mini Guide content.
As of today Betternest have taken up residency in the Extensions
Absolute Lofts are where you might expect them to be all over Loft Conversions and the and The Stable Company – have bolted into Outbuildings
We still have opportunities to sponsor the following Mini Guides:
• Conservatories
• Porches
• Satellites and Antenna
So please get in touch to find out more.
‘Betternest’ have enhanced their friend of the Portal status no end by continuing to sponsor the Interactive House until the end of March whilst we welcome lawyers and barristers No5 Chambers, who have chosen to sponsor the “Planning” area of the site.
If you’d like to join our ever growing band of friends please contact Guy Funnell in our commercial team by email or on 0117 372 8232
Despite the gloomy outlook or perhaps because of it the total number of electronic planning applications soared again in 2010.
There were in total 229,065 planning applications submitted via The Planning Portal compared with 160,825 in 2009 an increase of 42%.
The graph below illustrates the year on year growth of electronic planning application submissions which in addition to the obvious economic benefits also delivers close to 3,000 tonnes of CO2 savings.
Stats by Dan the Statsman
Sorry, but it’s time to talk the the “L” word. Localism that is, not love although being the festive season a little bit of both wouldn’t go amiss.
Assuming that the Portal survives the icy blast of the spending review then I hope we’ll play our part in enabling the agenda.
We’ve certainly got the communication channels to reach neighbourhoods with information and tools and we’ve got the links to LPA websites (both technical and relational) to ‘link things up’. However the question is: in a time of decentralisation what should our role be?
Should we provide information only or would tools and forms help? (Don’t forget we can build them once and use them for many.)
What about lessons learned? As people and communities start to develop local plans should the Portal provide a place for sharing lessons, best practice, tips and tricks or leave it all alone and let something evolve by itself?
I’d love to hear your views.
Chris
Planning Portal Blog 