Local Planning Authorities: The Future of Planning
More about our winners:
- Dacorum Borough Council
- Nottingham City Council
- South Ayrshire Council
Dacorum Borough Council
Dacorum Borough Council, wants to translate existing text and spreadsheets by using digital mapping to better manage and communicate infrastructure and developer contributions secured through Planning Obligations. These legal agreements require developers to mitigate the impact of their scheme on the local community and infrastructure either through a financial contribution or delivery onsite. The pilot aims to make it easier to track where the contributions are received, spent and what the best improvements could be, for example, new green space, schools, sports facilities, cycle paths or roads.
“The objective is to use digital mapping to help with not only the decision making around the planning of new infrastructure and make the whole process more transparent but also to support community engagement,” commented Councillor Alan Anderson, Portfolio Holder, Planning and Infrastructure at Dacorum Borough Council. “Our current system outputs are text and spreadsheet based – we believe that by providing this information in a spatial way it will provide a powerful asset which can be used by Council officers and others for planning, decision making and monitoring and also by the public to enhance understanding and engagement in infrastructure funding and planning. The pilot will deliver cost and time savings through the delivery of more automated processes, while also freeing up officer resource/capacity to deal with other complex issues.”
A lack of understanding of infrastructure requirements, including costs and timescales for delivery is frequently a reason for Local Plans failing at independent examination, resulting in authorities starting a new plan afresh. Understanding infrastructure is a big issue for Local Plans at examination. National Policy and Guidance has set the bar higher now than ever before with respect to the level of evidence and knowledge required.
Nottingham City Council
Nottingham City Council’s proposition is going to explore how geospatial technology can help increase the use of 3D visualisations within the planning environment, internally and with the public. Like many councils, the team already has a 3D model assessment built into its process, whereby developer models are inserted into 3D software for a visual assessment. The pilot project’s objective is to look at how this can be done within a GIS environment, which would add the benefit of being able to conduct a holistic assessment of other available data, including Local Plan information such as flood risk, allocation sites, listed buildings, etc, in the same place.
“If assessments are conducted in a GIS environment planning teams will be able to conduct an assessment of various constraints on a site, at the same time as a visual assessment of the impact of the site. This will enable better and quicker business decisions and greatly contribute to modernising the planning processes as per the Government White Paper,” explained Mick Dunn, GIS Service Manager, Nottingham City Council. “GIS will bring other capabilities to the process too, from in-depth flooding analysis to view analysis, which we would like to be able to share easily with interested parties, from images of views and fly-throughs to an online version of the model. We feel this could be pushed even further, perhaps being able to provide VR (virtual reality) consultation on sites. For example, a QR code on a planning notification near the proposed site, which links to a VR experience on your mobile phone. Assessments need to be enhanced using new techniques such as this, as public expectations rise, in line with improvements in technology.”
South Ayrshire Council
South Ayrshire Council’s project will examine how an innovative community consultation platform with interactive methods of engagement can help further improve community involvement in Local Development Plans – the Proposed South Ayrshire LDP2 in the first instance. The collaboration will involve new mapping and analytical techniques to engage more widely with stakeholders, about their vision for how communities will grow and develop in the future within South Ayrshire.
“The objective is to create a space to keep our community engaged and informed to strengthen our relationship with our stakeholders, in order to reach better planning outcomes,” said Gordon Wilson, Planning Technician at South Ayrshire Council. “Effective public engagement can lead to better plans, better decisions and more satisfactory outcomes and it can help to avoid delays in the planning process too. Our vision is to build on the work already done by South Ayrshire in creating its LDP2, developing new apps and information to create a Local Plan community engagement and consultation Hub, which will be more accessible, as the majority of people are now online. Digital engagement will reach more people and will present the opportunity to hear diverse voices. Reaching more people leads to higher participation and having more data creates more knowledge. A huge benefit will be that the community can participate anytime, anywhere.”
