Electronic Planning and Building Control Applications Come
Together In DataSpace at Barnsley

Barnsley Council is the first local authority to go live with Electronic Planning applications made through www.planningportal.gov.uk and Electronic Building Control Applications made through www.submit-a-plan.com both handled by the same technical document management system supplied as part of the Submit-a-Plan solution.

Steve Normington the Development Control Manager at Barnsley stated: “It seemed to make sense that we utilise the same system to receive and manage the electronic plans from the Planning Portal as we do for Building Control”.

Ken Jackson the Building Control Manager at Barnsley commented: “Submit-a-Plan from LABC has proved itself as a great tool for making electronic Building Control applications through www.submit-a-plan.com and as an added bonus it has a great technical document management system allowing us to quickly and easily approve plans and associated documents”.

This approach has numerous advantages as it has been specifically developed by Local Authority Building Control (LABC) to do the actual job of viewing and approving plans, which is basically the same process whether you are in Building Control or Development Control.

It is a single document management system for IT to support and just one system for users to learn. With a common system running across both Development and Building Control, both departments can easily share information ensuring that what gets built is actually what received Planning permission in the first place.

Applicants that need to make applications to Development Control and Building Control can now do so entirely electronically using the two websites www.plannningportal.gov.uk and www.submit-a-plan.com. Using the websites the application forms can be completed online and the associated documents and plans attached electronically.
The expensive and time-consuming chore of plotting off multiple copies of plans is no longer required with the added advantage that the whole solution is environmentally friendly. Applicants that need to meet tight deadlines can make applications 24 hours a day seven days a week without needing to visit council offices or depend on the post.

Richard Goodwin, Director of the Planning Portal said: “I am delighted that Submit-a-Plan has become the latest system to be accredited for accepting on-line Planning applications through the Planning Portal. Submit-a-Plan via its connection with LABC already has a relationship with over 110 local authority Building Control departments and this latest integration will now enable those relationships to be extended into Development Control. The technical document management solution incorporated within Submit-a-Plan is applicable to both the development and Building Control functions and thus helps Local Authorities to e-enable the end-end Planning process. We look forward to working with Submit-a-Plan to ensure that many more of our joint Local Planning Authority customers can achieve their 2005 deadline for implementing electronic Government.”

Steve Evans, IT Director for LABC Services added, “This is a huge step forward for joined up e-government. We were asked by the ODPM to work with the Planning Portal after they had seen the success of LABC Submit-a- Plan , which is now installed in over 110 authorities. This accreditation is the first step in what I hope will be a continuing development of the two systems to the benefit of our joint customers.”