Tandridge District Councilin Surrey has overhauled its back-office document
management and planning systems to ensure it meets central
government targets to improve its online planning
service.
The district council built interfaces towards the end of last
year between its electronic document management application from
software supplier
Civica and its Headway Planning Development
Control application from MIS-LGS.
Under government legislation that takes its lead from criteria
set out in 2003 by planning expert Peter Pendleton, every local
authority with responsibility for town planning has to meet
government targets aimed at moving as much planning information
online as possible .
The back-office integration project enabled Tandridge to meet
the Whitehall deadline for councils to comply with Pendleton's 21
principles for presenting planning information online.
Many other councils have not been able to meet these demands in
full, only being able to comply with some of the principles.
The council said, "The expectation was that by opening up the
town planning system to the public there would be savings without
any detriment to service levels.
"The challenge was the integration of software from the various
suppliers without complicating our support issues. Obtaining the
suppliers' agreement to meet our business and legal interpretations
was not simple."
At the outset of the project, Tandridge set up an internal
implementation team with staff taken from the planning and IT
departments. A project manager was appointed to manage the internal
developers and the two suppliers.
The council said, "Significant technical difficulties and the
suppliers' understanding of the legal requirements presented us
with a challenge. In spite of our expressed off-the-shelf approach,
we made major enhancements to the software using internal
expertise."
Tandridge spent £45,000 making its planning applications
available online. Some £20,000 of the capital investment was
accounted for by a web-based interface for the document management
system.
The cost of integrating Civica's document management system and
MIS-LGS' Headway planning application was met from the budget of
other council projects.
Integrating the document management and planning applications
has also helped Tandridge prepare for the next round of Whitehall
targets.
Councils with planning responsibility have to introduce a
standard planning application form, 1APP, by 1 October this
year.
www.planningportal.gov.uk/england/government/en/1115314127749.html
Related article:
Woking Council publishes planning documents online
Civica plcMIS LGS
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