A word from Portal Director Chris Kendall

Welcome to my weekly (I'll do my best) update on what's up and coming on the Planning Portal.

Hopefully I'll cover all bases with the latest info on fixes and improvements to the site and its products as well as news on events and happenings and gleanings from any research or feedback we've received.

I'd like this to be a two-way street so please let me have your thoughts on any topics at director@planningportal.gov.uk

Latest Entry:

8 January 2008

Hello again and Happy New Year.

Four days back and here we go again, lots to do this year and already we're hard at work.

First up is the brilliant news that Northgate have become the first ICT supplier to LPAs to begin creation of a connector to link their LPA customers to the e-Consultation Hub.

It's great to see them taking the lead in what will be the predominant programme of the year for us.

LPAs take note: the schema are out there and being used by Northgate - time to get on the phone to your supplier.

Secondly, but no less important for us, the ink has just dried on the contract to provide a completely new infrastructure and content management system for the Portal site.

Work has already begun and kit has been ordered. Watch this space for more details on the improvements we hope to deliver as a result. Feel free to let me have your feedback on improvements or extensions you’d like to see.

The Stattos at Barbour ABI have been busy again. It appears planning application figures for November dropped by 35 per cent on the same month last year. The Portal processed more than 12,000 (31 per cent) of those.
 
While on stats, almost 2,500 of you took a look at our interactive Christmas card with nearly 1,000 of you dressing it up and sending it on. Bring on Valentine’s Day, who knows what the folks will think of next! And not a tree was sacrificed.

Chris Kendall

Previous posts:

18 December 2008

Just a few words before the Christmas break and we hurtle headlong into 2009.

Traditionally this is the point where one looks back over the highs and lows of the year, reflecting on the successes and hoping to learn from the issues.

I’m not going to jump into overdrive with self-congratulation but just list a few of the key milestones that we've played a part in delivering.

The number of LPAs processing more than 20% of their planning applications electronically has jumped from 26% to 64% since January and the number of electronic applications submitted has now passed 30% of the total.

Every LPA migrated to 1App by the 6 April deadline and despite early hitches it has now bedded down and is delivering very real benefits. There is still more we can do to simplify and streamline the system and we are working on it with technical and policy colleagues to continue to enhance and improve it, including work on validation.

Working with 32 LPAs, English Heritage, The Environment Agency and others we have built and live tested the e-Consultation Hub and begun the roll-out process.

In the coming year our focus will be on continuing to drive forward the migration to electronic submission and consultation. We'll be doing our bit to support the Department's response to Killian Pretty and hopefully we'll be doing lots more on Building Control.

With the downturn in full swing we'll be particularly concerned to do anything we can to help business and I look forward to hearing any ideas you have for how we might achieve that.

And last but definitely not least we'll be moving to a completely new IT infrastructure that will hopefully make us more fleet of foot, particularly in response to your feedback.

Overall, though, it’s been an astonishing year, with plenty to be proud of as a team and an industry.

Planning has embraced e-working in a way few other industries have and it's just now beginning to reap the rewards. Once widespread e-Consultation is in place we will have a true end-to-end electronic process that will release huge benefits for everybody. 

Thanks for all your feedback so far, it is gratifying to know that you're out there and care enough about what we’re trying to achieve to take the time to email me.

Especially gratifying to see Planning Magazine read this, too, as anyone who saw the references to the downturn stats I published here last week will realise. You read it here first!

And finally thanks to everybody who has worked with us, supported us or simply put up with us over the last year. We are not going away (despite the wishes of some) and we will be back after Christmas as committed as ever to making planning easier, faster and more transparent.

Please have a play with our interactive Christmas card and send it on and take a look at our new interactive terrace.

Merry Christmas and see you soon.

Chris Kendall

12 December 2008

Here we are again, another hectic week flown by and most of it spent on the road in one way or another, hence this late delivery.

Once we have our new IT in place I'll be a little more blog-like and drop in snippets as they happen from wherever I might be, until then it’s the weekly missive I'm afraid.

I'll try to keep my hyperbole under control this week and start by apologising to those of you who might have experienced some problems with attachments to applications earlier in the week.

This was due to a coding problem coincidentally brought to light when we dropped in the PDF attachments enhancement.
 
Despite some reports to the contrary (you know who you are) my team pre-warned all the relevant LPA ICT suppliers that the changes were coming and ensured they all had ample opportunity to test the enhancements prior to go live.

I don't mind putting my hands up when we make a mistake but not on this one!

Thanks for the interesting feedback which is often as surprising as it is enlightening. You are making a difference and it is already helping us improve our service, whether it is pointing out out-of-date or inaccurate policy references, making suggestions on how we might make our forms more user and environmentally friendly or indeed sending me home-brew recipes (apparently mash-up means something quite different in real ale circles).

Please keep it coming, unfortunately there is not much I can do to help with individual planning applications but if you just fancy a rant feel free.

As I mentioned I've had a bit of a road trip this week, part of that was visiting businesses who submit a lot of applications.

I wanted to hear what the Portal might do to help in the downturn. I'm keen to hear what products and services might make a difference or to better understand the problems you face. I'm always out and about so let me know if you'd like me to drop by.

I also managed to fit in a meeting of the august body that is the Planning Portal Governance Board yesterday. It all went swimmingly and we now have approval to drive forward with roll-out of the e-Consultation Hub. LPAs, consultees, Parishes - you’ll be hearing from us.

On the same topic, I can confirm that at least one major ICT supplier to LPAs is now developing a connector, putting the sword to the rumour that there is no schema available.

And finally you wouldn't expect any body involved in planning not to mention Killian Pretty, now would you? Watch this space shortly for news of the practical steps the Portal is taking to help move the agenda forward.

Chris Kendall

5 December 2008

OK - well I’m off for a couple of days now so not a lot to add this week, probably a good thing after last week’s highs. Can’t say we’re slowing down into Christmas yet. In fact it’s the other way round, what with responses to Killian Pretty here and economic downturns there. It’s all playing havoc with my handicap.

Mashups and widgets

I know it’s all so last year but it takes us a while sometimes. Do you mashup? If so get in touch.

I’m thinking of adding a customer interface that will link to our illegal ads database. The idea being eagle-eyed punter (sorry citizen) spots a truck parked in a field alongside the motorway advertising lovely stuff.

Punter gets home, opens up Planning Portal map and sticks a virtual pin in, attaches a message that routes to lovely enforcement officer.

Enforcement officer investigates and changes status of flag, everybody’s happy except naughty advertiser (who moves on to neighbouring authority) and off we go again.

As for widgets, we’re looking at ways to widgetise (It will be in OED next year) some of our tools, fee calculator etc. Let me know what you think.

Fixes live

As promised the enhancements (so much nicer than fixes) went live on Wednesday night for the online measuring tool and PDF extract that summarises the details of supporting documents that are supplied with applications.

Both biggies you’ll agree, particularly if you’re an LPA. We haven’t heard of any problems but let our support team know if you find any.

Keep the feedback coming.

Chris Kendall

Wow, what a week.

I promise that this column will not be an un-ending source of spin and hyperbole – however, by any stretch of the imagination, we've had a cracker and I’m going to shout about it.

Firstly, anyone who has watched our progress will know we're no stranger to awards ceremonies and we've never been accused of hiding our light under a bushel.

That said, Wednesday night was a real high point for me, when I collected on behalf of the Portal, the Whitehall & Westminster World, Civil Service awards gong for 'Public Value' from Cabinet Secretary and Head of the Home Civil Service, Sir Gus O’Donnell (and prime minister Gordon Brown) - oh yes, we move in high circles now!

Public value is exactly what we're about, so as you'll imagine we’re all feeling pretty chuffed this morning.

And that was before...

I received the latest planning application statistics from (once again, I told you they were lovely) Barbour ABI. The stats bore out the news we'd anticipated that planning application numbers across England and Wales were down by 27 per cent year on year for October. However, the silver lining for the Portal is that despite the downturn you are increasing the number of electronic applications you make. For the first time more than 30 per cent of planning applications made were submitted electronically via the Portal.

Money-off coupon

Now that we are guardians of public value and credit crunch busters we think it only fitting that we do our bit to go the extra mile for our customers. With this in mind we’ve taken the opportunity to go considerably further than the PM has required re the 2.5 per cent VAT cut and returned our prices for site location plan maps to the prices set in 2003.

Next step is to remove the registration hurdle that currently means you might need to register in two stages, but bear with us, it will be fixed in a couple of weeks.

Talking of fixes

You might be pleased to hear that two long-awaited technical releases will go live next week. The first, the online measuring tool, will enable anyone with Acrobat Reader on their PC to view and measure on screen any plan or drawing submitted in PDF via the Planning Portal. I can almost hear the cheers.

The second is a bit technical for me so forgive me if I go all Haynes Manual for a while.

To help LPAs identify what supporting documents are submitted with an application, we've added a PDF extract that summarises the details of supporting documents that are supplied with applications.

This PDF attachment summary will provide a checklist that LPAs can use to identify the type, status and details of each attachment. This is especially useful when updates to applications are submitted as the LPA will be able to easily identify which attachments have been changed since the previous submission. Subject to final testing it should be live for Wednesday 3 December 2008.

And finally…

You may have noticed we've recently accredited additional mapping suppliers and opened up the Portal to them to offer their maps to you.

Well, I think that's enough really except to say thanks to all who wrote to me following my first post last week.

I really do value every bit of feedback.

Chris Kendall

20 November 2008

First off is an update on our latest major project, e-Consultation.

They said it couldn't be done - 1App (The Standard National Planning Application Form) that is, but we did it and on time too and now the whole of Wales has joined the party - congrats.

This might seem like old news but hang on, without 1App there would be no national e-Consultation.

The standard system for applications that 1App has brought us can be extended into consultations between everybody from internal LPA departments to statutory and non-statutory Consultees, parish councils and even citizens.

We've now completed the live trial with the help of The Environment Agency, English Heritage and 32 willing LPAS and the big news is - it works!

Next up we will be going through the rigours of a Gateway Review swiftly followed by getting more LPAs and Consultees on board as fast as possible.

Watch out - the end-to-end electronic planning system is in sight

If you are working at an LPA which wants to get involved in e-Consultation sooner rather than later, or have questions about what this will mean for your organisation, let me know.

Great response

Apparently there's a crunch about and it's going to change the world as we know it. So we thought we'd better ask our customers how they think it'll affect planning. We're especially interested in the number of planning applications being submitted - it's our bread and butter you see.

So we ran a short survey for a couple of weeks to take a snapshot and over 1,000 of you came back with your views (and we didn't even offer a prize!). Great response - thanks!

At the same time those lovely people from the Wirral, ABI Barbour, gave us the latest info on the numbers of applications submitted each month since March 2007. Not that our own stats aren't lovely but it's always good to double check.

Anyhow the data indicated a 17% drop off on the overall number of applications submitted in England and Wales during August and September on last year - no massive surprise there then!

We'll be waiting with bated breath for the October figures which should be with us very soon.

As for the survey and the forward look, well there's some interesting stuff. Firstly I was pleasantly surprised to see how many architects use the Portal, well over 20% of the respondents, I suppose that means either you're really engaged or you've got a bit more time on your hands at the moment. I hope it's the former.

Overall 42.9% of respondents feel that there will be a reduction of 10%-20% whilst 36.2% think the drop off will be greater than that.

6.9% think there'll actually be more applications and that the guy down the chip shop really is Elvis.

Seriously though, some believe that there will be an "improve not move" impact and to be fair that is what's happened in the past.

When you break down the predictions by job type the numbers fluctuate considerably with 64% of developers and 49% of builders expecting a major decrease. Interestingly, only 22% of respondents from LPAs agreed with the latter.

We, and by we I mean both those of us at the delivery end and our policy colleagues, are working hard to seek out ways of helping everyone in our industry through this. All the survey feedback will help us to work out where we are in e-enabling the planning process, and what still needs to be done to make life easier for applicants.

It seems at first glance that an increasing percentage of currently declining applications are being done online but it pays to be sure and we want to make sure we get the right help in the right place at the right time.

And finally...

Well actually there's loads more, but for now I'll trail forthcoming news to keep you on tenterhooks for the next instalment.

Work on the online measuring tool, the Interactive House part deux (now it's terraced), the Portal's part in Killian Pretty, a customisable Web 2.0 Planning Portal, Second Life and so much more will all be featured in the upcoming weeks so make sure you check back and don't forget to write to me with your comments or suggestions at director@planningportal.gov.uk

Thanks

Chris Kendall