Rossendale Borough Council Uses My Virtual Mail Room Online Bureau

As a forward thinking Authority Rossendale Borough Council has a proven track record of successfully embracing new technology and methods of working.

Looking to the future Rossendale Borough Council could see that a single simple solution was required that could manage scanned planning applications as well as applications made online. After investigating the feasibility of inhouse scanning it proved to be unfavorable as this involved additional staff and expensive equipment. It also became apparent that the scanned applications would need to be Legally Admissible should they be required as evidence, a process which is only achieved though stringent quality procedures.

Rossendale Borough Council approached Resolution to come up with a solution that was cost effective and reliable for scanning the 700 paper planning applications received each year and managing electronic applications from LABC www.submit-a-plan.com portal and Planning Portal. The answer was to implement DataSpace Technical Document Management system together with the My Virtual Mail Room Bureau Service.

Bryan Beardsworth, Planning Project Manager at Rossendale Borough Council Commented,
“We are extremely pleased with the My Virtual Mail Room service as it has really proved its worth. At Rossendale we receive around 700 paper Planning Applications a year. When we compare the cost of Resolution's bureau service against the cost for scanning the applications inhouse the service really makes sense.

...the service really makes sense.

We have looked at inhouse scanning before but with the cost of the equipment, staffing and increasingly stringent scanning processes required to meet legal admissibility standards it did not make business sense. My Virtual Mail Room is quick, user friendly product which allows my officers the capacity, to focus on the delivery of our core functions.

...extremely pleased.

Using My Virtual Mail Room we now have a single procedure for processing applications for both Building Control and Development Control, no matter if they were made electronically on the LABC www.submit-a-plan.com portal , the Planning Portal or sent by post, as they all end up in our DataSpace system. We have recently signed up to use the service for another year as we are extremely pleased.”