Councillor Doug Cresswell asked the following question of the Chair of the Planning Applications Committee:

New Planning Portal

Residents are experiencing problems with the new Council planning portal, including the lack of supporting documents that is already noted on the website. These seem more than an inconvenience, because if residents don’t see the applications or relevant documents in time, the Planning team will process the application and residents won’t have had chance to comment, or object?

There have already been quite a few applications processed since the move to the new system. The initial problem with relevant dates not showing in search results has been fixed after prompting, but the lack of access to or notice of supporting documents remains a live issue. Of course, where documents are missing, or don’t show, it is very hard for anyone to give informed comments on the application. There is also a problem with the search feature not working as expected, but returning a large volume of unrelated applications, making picking out the relevant applications very difficult.

Can the Committee be updated on progress with testing and bug-fixing of the new system and given a timetable for when full service is expected?

REPLY by the Chair of the Planning Applications Committee (Councillor Gavin):

Thank you Councillor Cresswell for your question.

The new Council Planning Portal went live in July this year.  As with all new systems it is taking a little time to bed in. You are right to raise concerns about problems experienced with using the new platform on our website to view planning applications.

Problems and issues are being identified and fixed quickly, however some are more difficult to fix than others. So, while you are correct to say that the relevant dates field is now working, the issues with the advanced search of planning histories is taking more time to resolve.

You also note that some supporting documents have not been publicly available meaning that residents cannot see all of the information they need to consider an application fully and this may delay them submitting comments.  I understand your concerns as this could lead to the application being processed but without local neighbours submitting their comments or objections in time.

Regarding some documents not being publicly published, this arose from officers not being aware that they had to confirm that a document should be published whereas previously this was not required. The change is required for data safeguarding reasons. Officers are now fully trained in the process and spot checks have been carried out to ensure documents are being published correctly now. Officers are back-checking from the early stages of the new system for any that were missed and to correct their status. If residents are still experiencing problems they should contact the case officer who can arrange publication and may be able to agree to allow more time for comments to come in.

The project team are working hard with Arcus Global to resolve all outstanding problems and looking at options that will give the best outcome for the service.  The worst-case scenario is that issues have to be resolved by 18^th November, which is when the rest of the Regulatory Services teams switch over to the new system.  The aim is however to fix the planning register problems as soon as possible.

May I add that notwithstanding the issues mentioned that have arisen with the implementation of this new major piece of software, I have found the new Planning Portal easy to navigate and much more user friendly.