By Jo Best, 17 February 2004 16:29
NEWS The government has announced the latest in a long line of developments to get public services online by 2005, with the planning authorities now getting e-enabled.
The planning authorities' portal site has been live since May 2002 but Monday saw the announcement of a "faster, more efficient planning system".
As well as bringing planning guidance together on one site and allowing users to track an application online, planning professionals will now be able to submit applications electronically, rather than relying on a paper system. Not only will the newly updated portal save planners time and frustration, it's hoped that the electronic system will mean savings in government.
The online system will provide various checks to validate the electronic submission process, leading to fewer applications being rejected because they are incorrectly filled in or don't have the right documents attached. The e-planning system will also mean that the local authorities won't have to re-key in data from paper forms an average saving of around 25 minutes per application. And with around 650,000 applications submitted a year, the savings aren't to be sniffed at.
Richard Goodwin, the planning portal's director, said that professionals themselves were a key driver towards e-planning.
"We're responding to the needs of users. Now you can access planning information when it suits you and you don't have to fill in a form manually and post it. We're driven by the market if planning professionals come to us and say 'That's good, we need that [online service],' then we look at the business case for it," he told silicon.com. "We deliver what users say they want."
With over 650 stakeholder organisations contributing to the development process, the site will be developed further in the future. For example, users from the RTPI's regeneration network called for areas where advertising hoardings need planning permission to be listed on the site, as well as information on aid for regeneration projects to be included.
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1. Hugh Lockhart-Ball
Submitted drawings on-line as PDFs at A3 as requested and the planner phone to say that she had print-outs at A4 and could I send her hard copy so that she could work at the right scale. Not quite connected yet!