An update from Adam Telford – the Portal’s head of marketing and communications.
In June Chris Kendall wrote about the Accredited Agents Scheme pilots the Portal would be running as part of our Killian Pretty work.
The idea of the scheme was to accredit those individuals who consistently submit planning applications in a way that helps LPAs process them.
Well, we have run two pilots from September to December.
The Southern pilot included:
- Bath and North East Somerset
- Bristol
- North Somerset
- South Gloucestershire
The Northern pilot included:
- Barnsley
- Bradford
- East Riding
- Kirklees
- Leeds
- Selby
Where the schemes have been used they appear to have added clarity for everyone involved, but they have not seen as much take-up as we would like. Read more…
Things are pretty hectic at the moment – even more than usual – so I thought it might be time for a general update.
Online planning applications are bobbling along at about 35 per cent (of all applications) which is OK, but not where we want it to be. As a result, we are about to launch into overdrive with events and activities aimed at agents and applicants running throughout January, February and March. Our aim is to get as close to 50 per cent as possible by the end of March.
On the technical front, work continues apace on the redesign, with ourselves, IBM and our usability and design partners all focused on delivering a site that will be uniquely useful and efficient. An early quick win of the new infrastructure is that we have been able to offer the IPC a website on the same platform – saving them a great deal of money and time.
As mentioned previously, we are now working with the Cabinet Office on a version of the Portal for DirectGov and our plans to offer local LPA versions of the Portal are gathering momentum (I’d be delighted to hear from any LPA who likes the idea of their own version of the site, wrapped in their own local authority branding).
Right now I’m working up the business plans for next year and beyond and it’s already clear money will be tighter than in previous years. No surprise there!
Unlike many of our colleagues, we are at least in the position to generate revenue. So we are assessing our options – projecting and planning like mad – and intend to start the new (financial) year with a commercial focus previously only hinted at. Watch this space! Read more…
Here’s an update on e-Consultation in response to a question from a reader.
Take-up of the e-Consultation Hub is continuing to gain momentum, although somewhat slower than hoped in a difficult economic climate. However, both English Heritage and the Environment Agency have committed their organisations to it as their preferred method of consultation and many other consultees are following suit.
Currently, 44 LPAs are using the hub for electronic consultations and the first connector to an LPA back-office system has been developed by Ocella and was successfully implemented by South Oxfordshire District Council at the end of September. Other connectors are in development and will follow in the next couple of months.
In the meantime, CLG remains committed to the hub as a standardised solution which will bring financial, environmental and business process benefits nationally.
We may not know who will be sitting where in Parliament and we may not know who will be King or Queen of the jungle, but there’s one thing we can be sure of – next year will be tough.
I’m fairly sure most of you will agree that there will be a lot to achieve and less money to do it with. I’m equally sure that we will not be immune.
Fortunately, through incredibly insightful management, we’ve already reduced our I.T costs and become greener with it. However, if we are to continue delivering to the level we’ve become accustomed, we expect we’ll need to top up the kitty.
At the moment, we raise funds in two ways: firstly, by delivering services for other bits of Government – good work but not a lot of profit in it! Secondly, we sell site location maps to planning applicants. This provides useful revenue either directly or by commissions from other suppliers with every penny going back into service development, however, we’d like more.
We have some ideas, but before sharing them with the world, I thought I’d ask you dear readers for your views.
The question is a simple one: what do you think the Portal could and should do to generate revenue?
If we get some good ideas, I’ll pop them in a poll and let you vote on them.
Over to you.
Chris
You may be aware that most Government websites are required to shift citizen-facing content to Directgov by March 2011. The idea being to make it easier for citizens to find Government content and to reduce the mountain of .Gov websites cluttering up the web.
Up ’til now we’ve struggled to understand how we might meet this obligation while retaining our ability to continue to drive reform of the planning system. This has caused no little tension.
That was then… Read more…
The latest in our ongoing series of mini-guides has just been added to the site.
This guide illustrates the basics of permitted development for extensions and complements the guides for porches and loft conversions as well as the Interactive House and Terrace.
The common approach for all of these guides is to attempt to present permitted development to the lay-person in a simple yet effective manner.
We are delighted when LPAs and others choose to link to the guides and we update them as legislation changes.
We’d be delighted to hear how we might improve any of these guides or receive feedback of any kind.
Today the Portal is pleased to announce the launch of the visual guide to loft conversions. It has nine slides to reflect the increased number of limits and conditions compared to porches. You can see the final version of the new product here.
Key Features
- Graphical representation of common projects affected by new PD rules
- Text and visuals showing limits and proximities
- Clear summary checklist at the end
- Printable PDF summary documents for users and LPAs
Watch this space for further new visual guides from the Planning Portal content team.
MasterMap Update
At the start of October, we updated the 1:1250 map data, which contains buildings, roads, water, etc, to the current version.
PDF Fees Summary
Responding to LPA requests we have also recently delivered the PDF fees summary – a document that sets out how applicants calculated their application fee.
And finally, If you’d like to keep an eye on our performance, you’ll need to read our Service Report (below).
Service Report
The Service Report, which is published on the Planning Portal, contains monthly, quarterly and annual statistics and information on performance and customer satisfaction. Read more…
I’ve added a feed to the left hand column that will aggregate content updates from the CLG site.
The feed includes articles from the “consultation”, “articles” and “what’s new” feeds.
Let me know if it’s useful.
Chris
Planning Portal Blog 