Hello All,
back from hols and straight into the fray.
I met today with representatives of the outdoor advertisers including a Planning Manager from one of the major advertisers and the Chief Executive of the Outdoor Advertising Association.
They were concerned about the Unauthorised Advetising and Fly-posting database hosted by the Portal.
I was able to allay their fears and had a good conversation with them about all matters advertising/planning related.
They are as keen as we all are to rid ourselves of unauthorised advertisers and fly-posters as they believe they cast their industry in a bad light which in turn reflects on them. (They also lose revenue to them.)
Following the conversation I proposed 2 actions to our database members (enforcement officers in the main).
1. We allow verified representatives of individual advertisers to request details of convictions against their company held on the database for the purpose of corroboration. I think this is only fair and would reassure advertisers that the database is accurate.
2. That we create a specific discussion group in advertisers can talk to planners as a group about general issues and developments in their industry that may have a planning facet i.e the development of outdoor digital advertisements. In this way they can seek the opinion of planners as a group enabling both parties to discuss issues and opportunities at the outset rather than when they become a problem.
This would not be used to discuss individual applications but wider developments or common issues.
It strikes me that other sectors may benefit from a similar approach.
Let me know what you think.
Chris
P.S If you work in local authority enforcement and are not using the database and its discussion forum sign up now.
There were 560,780 visits to the Planning Portal in July – up 2.5% on the previous month, and up 17.8% compared to July 2008.
At the same time there were 294,404 unique visitors – up 2.2% on the previous month, and up 26.7% compared to July 2008.
These visitors accounted for 6,459,624 page views – up 2.7% on the previous month. Of these 47% came from the General Public, 45% from Professional and 8% from Government users.
The Building Regulations portion of the website accounted for 19% of Visits.
The Interactive Houses generated 48,749 views , 18% of which were to the Terrace House.
There were 96,880 visits to the “My Applications” page on the Portal and a new record high of 15,828 planning applications were submitted online via the site.
We’ve crunched and re-crunched the numbers and it’s true! – the Portal has saved builders, inspectors, architectural technologists, joe blogs and all a lot (and I mean a lot) of money on Building Regs.
In 2008 alone there were 1,209,696 downoads of the regs and various supporting documents. Saving £14,372,224 (not including a further £3.6 Million in p&p).
There have already been 687,934 downloads this year saving a further £10 Million.
Not in efficiencies or intangibles but your real, hard cash.
Wow!
As a strand of Killian Pretty we are researching the many and varied ways this question is currently being addressed paricularly in an automated manner.
From the former ‘Parsol Expert system’ overseen by PAS, to semi-automated systems provided by some I.T suppliers and all stops inbetween.
One view is that the question is too complex and multi-faceted to ever get a definitive answer from an automated system without enormous expense, another is that 80% certain is probably close enough in most small scale projects.
I’d be glad to hear your views on how you think the question could be best answered for citizens, bearing in mind many LPA’s are now refusing to give informal advice without an LDC or similar.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Chris
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
Planning Portal Blog 