You heard it here first!
According to the latest stats from Barbour ABI the total number of Planning Applications submitted in England and Wales in June was 45,239, that’s 16.2% up on the previous month, and a large increase for a typical June.
Online Application numbers were also up 9.7% to 33.2% of applications.
Of the total, 27,190 are classed by Barbour ABI as Home Improvements with another 14,971 as other small scale applications.
Are you in need of a bedtime read but funds prevent you from buying the latest Jeffrey Archer?
Then look no further we’ve recently learned that many of you didn’t realise all of the Approved Documents are available on the portal free of charge.
We will deal with the signposting issue, but in the meantime get you eyes round such catchy titles as
Part K Approved document K – Protection from falling collision and impact (1998 edition) or my personal favourite the steamy potboiler Part J Approved document J – Combustion appliances and fuel storage systems (2002 edition) and finally if you need sparks in your life there’s always the classic Part P Approved document P – Electrical safety – Dwellings (2006 edition). soon to a film starring Renee Zelwegger.
Here are the headlines for June 2009…
There were 547,196 Visits – up 13.1% compared to June 2008
There were 288,454 Unique Visitors – up 17.5% compared to June 2008.
Generating almost 7 Million page views
The Building Regulations portion of the website accounted for 20% of Visits, but only 6% of Total Page Views.
The Interactive Houses generated 50,173 views,
Overall our traffic breaks down as:
51% General Public 42% Professional 7% Government
There were more than 15,000 planning applications submitted.
A now significant number of LPA’s are using a free service provided by PlanningAlerts to provide email notification of planning applications for any given location. The service scrapes LPA websites to gather its data and links back to the application as published on the LPA site.
I’d be interested to know what you think of this service from both a user and LPA perspective.
Chris
As part of our Killian Pretty work we have produced a short guide on how to get the best from linking to content on the Portal.
If you are an LPA and want to cut down on those irritating calls from pesky applicants we suggest you point them our way. I know all very self-serving but honestly it can help and best of all it’s free.
Chris
Just a quick note to let you know that more than 15,000 planning applications were submitted online via the Portal in June.
We wont know what percentage of the total submitted that is until the end of this month but it’s another milestone reached.
Chris
I’ve noticed statements on at least 2 LPA’S websites making it clear they will no longer respond with informal written advice on PD unless it is in the form of a CLPD.
How common is this approach becoming and what are the drivers, is it the money, complexity of PD or something else entirely?
I’d love to know as it will help us shape our priorities.
Chris
One of the Killian pretty projects we are responsible for investigating is Recommendation 13(b) Develop an accredited Agents regime. Using the succesful implementation at St Helens as a potential model.
The simple idea being that having passed a quality test, perhaps over a range or quantity of applications an agent becomes accredited. The accreditation would be a quality mark that might ease passage of that agents subsequent applications through registration and potentially validation. The benefit to the agent being obvious and the lpa gets better quality applications.
It seems possible at this stage that the scheme might take one of 2 forms: either a national standard that an agent can obtain and use at any LPA or a set of guidelines for a locally operated scheme lpa by lpa.
I’m interested to hear your views on the principle, pitfalls and/or benefits of the idea.
I thought you might appreciate a heads up on the current position re: the e-Consultation Hub.
There are currently 42 LPAS using the Hub to consult with Statutory consultees including the Environment Agency and English Heritage and more recent additions including Natural England and The Coal Authority.
Some LPAs such as Kingston–upon-Thames are using the hub extensively to improve internal consultation and others such as the Borough Council of King’s Lynn and West Norfolk are engaging their Parishes to start using the service with effect from July 2009. They are also reporting significant cash savings as a result of an integrated approach to electronic applications and consultation via the hub.
Overall the number of consultations made transacted via the Hub have quadrupled in the last 2 months.
At least 2 of the major ICT suppliers to LPAs are now developing connectors to provide a direct automated link between the Hub and their back office with at least 1 in the advanced stages of development. More news on this to come soon I hope.
DCLG and in particular the Killian Pretty programme is showing great interest in our work and are fully committed to the e-Consultation hub. A revised take-up plan has just been agreed that will see take-up soaring between now and the end of the year.
A highly respected figure within the planning community has suggested to me that the S106 process would benefit from some standardisation and automation.
What’s proposed is a system underpinned by a standard template that might be adopted by an LPA and customised locally to match local requirements. The software would enable the potential applicant to calculate their likely S106 obligation in advance of making an application.
What do you think, is it likely to be taken up?, would it be useful?
As we haven’t gone near this before I thought I’d seek your views.
Chris
Planning Portal Blog 