I refer to your email to Shifa Mustafa concerning the issue of the Planning Explorer and viewing of plans.
I note the fact that you spoke to myself and Mr Boyes last year. The service has struggled with the ICT software in relation to the Planning Explorer.
I can advise that the Council has now procured a new ICT operating system for Development Management which will be installed over the next few months. I have asked the provider to prioritise any aspects of the system which interface withe customer. Priority will be given to the new Planning Explorer which should be up and running in the first couple of months of 2014.
With regard to consultation dates you will be aware that we take replies up to the date a decision is made.
With regard to South Grove there is a separate web page giving the plan details on this which can be accessed via the planning application page on the Council's web site.
I know you will be disappointed that there has not been a fix but there is one in the pipeline.
regards
David
David Scourfield
Head of Development Management and Building Control
G06 Sycamore House
Waltham Forest Town Hall Complex
E17 4JFDirect Line: 020 8496 6701
Duty Administration: 020 8496 6876
>>> Pam Holder <Pam.Holder@walthamforest.gov.
Hi Dave
Can you please arrange for a response to be sent to Mr Stannard on the issues he has raised and send a copy of your response to this office.
Kind regards
Pam
Pam Holder
P A to Shifa Mustafa|
Deputy Chief Executive
Environment and Regeneration|
London Borough of Waltham Forest|
Sycamore House|Waltham Forest Town Hall Complex|
Forest Road|Walthamstow|London|E17 4JF
Direct line: 020 8496 6826
From: Pam Holder
Sent: 09 September 2013 17:14
To: wfcivicsociety@gmail.com
Cc: Holly Welsh
Subject: RE: On-line Planning issues
Dear Mr Stannard
Your email to the Chief Executive has been passed to Shifa Mustafa, Deputy Chief Executive Environment and Regeneration, and the contents have been noted.
A response will be sent to you in due course.
Please do not hesitate to contact this office if you require any further assistance.
Kind Regards
Pam Holder
P A to Shifa Mustafa|
Deputy Chief Executive
Environment and Regeneration|
London Borough of Waltham Forest|
Sycamore House|Waltham Forest Town Hall Complex|
Forest Road|Walthamstow|London|E17 4JF
Direct line: 020 8496 6826
Email: Pam.holder@walthamforest.gov.Your email to the Chief Executive has been passed to Shifa Mustafa, Deputy Chief Executive Environment and Regeneration, and the contents have been noted.
A response will be sent to you in due course.
Please do not hesitate to contact this office if you require any further assistance.
Kind Regards
Pam Holder
P A to Shifa Mustafa|
Deputy Chief Executive
Environment and Regeneration|
London Borough of Waltham Forest|
Sycamore House|Waltham Forest Town Hall Complex|
Forest Road|Walthamstow|London|E17 4JF
Direct line: 020 8496 6826
From: Karen Honeyball
Sent: 09 September 2013 16:43
To: wfcivicsociety@gmail.com
Cc: Shifa Mustafa; Pam Holder; Holly Welsh
Subject: RE: On-line Planning issues
Mr. Stannard,
Thank you for your e-mail of the 7th of September 2013 to Martin Esom, Chief Executive.
By copy of this e-mail we have asked Shifa Mustafa, Deputy Chief Executive for Environment and Regeneration Services, to look into the issues that you have raised, and to respond to you direct. Ms. Mustafa will be in touch with you shortly with a full response.
Kind regards.
Karen Honeyball
Executive Assistant to Martin Esom, Chief Executive
Waltham Forest Council
Room 112, Waltham Forest Town Hall
Forest Road, Walthamstow
London E17 4JF
Tel: 020 8496 4201
Mobile: 078 96 477331
Email: karen.honeyball@walthamforest.Thank you for your e-mail of the 7th of September 2013 to Martin Esom, Chief Executive.
By copy of this e-mail we have asked Shifa Mustafa, Deputy Chief Executive for Environment and Regeneration Services, to look into the issues that you have raised, and to respond to you direct. Ms. Mustafa will be in touch with you shortly with a full response.
Kind regards.
Karen Honeyball
Executive Assistant to Martin Esom, Chief Executive
Waltham Forest Council
Room 112, Waltham Forest Town Hall
Forest Road, Walthamstow
London E17 4JF
Tel: 020 8496 4201
Mobile: 078 96 477331
Alternative contact: Rosie Tulloch - 020 8496 4918 - rosie.tulloch@walthamforest.
www.walthamforest.gov.uk<http:
From: Waltham Forest Civic Society [mailto:wfcivicsociety@gmail.
Sent: 07 September 2013 22:08
To: Martin Esom
Cc: Cllr Chris Robbins; Adrian Stannard; Bill Measure; Jane Sterland; Judy Allen; Madeleine Munday; Patricia Gough; Yvonne Cross; Caramel Quin; Jonathon Crossley
Subject: On-line Planning issues
WALTHAM FOREST CIVIC SOCIETY
Martin
On the 12th July 2012 we sent this email to Steven Boyes and David Scourfield - see below. We then held a meeting with them and they explained the issues they had with the on-line planning system and that some aspects of it would be expensive to fix. Now a year on nothing has changed. We strongly believe we should have access to the planning applications on-line but David says it is not a statutory requirement.
Today I received by post the planning application lists for 19th August and 25th August which means the 21 day objection period is seriously reduced. We said we were happy to receive notification of them by email but that has never been implemented so the council is wasting money on unnecessary postage.
None of the plans for these dates that I have checked have the plans loaded which includes the Morrisons development in South Grove (2013/1252) and the online details show the closing date for objections is 24th September.
It really is time the council made sure its online planning system works. For years we have been complaining and nothing happens. A short term fix is to ensure the registration of the plans is delayed until the plans are loaded and we can see them.
We hope you can provide the resources to enable the public proper access to the plans. If you check other London Boroughs most of them provide a far superior service to Waltham Forest.
Adrian
Adrian Stannard
To: Steven Boyes - Interim Head of Regeneration and Planning
Davd Scourfield - Head of Development Control
I am writing on behalf of various groups (list below). We have been concerned for some time at the poor service provided by the on-line Planning Application system and since the upgrade to the Council's web site it has become even worse. We would like to meet you and David to discuss this and see how it can be improved. With the sophisticated technology available to everyone these days it seems very old fashioned having to go to Sycamore House to view printed plans.
Our main concerns are:
1. Time wasted in visiting Sycamore House - our travelling time and your staff having to find the plans.
2. Sycamore House only operates normal office hours so it is impossible for those with full time jobs to get to the office to see the plans.
3. In the past plans were available at libraries, but as far as we know that service is no longer available, so people coming from Leyton or Chingford have a long journey on top of the time waiting for the plans.
4. Planning Applications are registered and the details appear on the Weekly List and the on-line system. The information that is provided is adequate for us to decide if the plans need to be examined. But rarely do the plans appear on-line and last week I checked 17 applications and not one of them had the plans on line. The result of this is we have to ask the Planners when the plans will go on-line. Sometimes they appear a few days later and others never do. The consequence of this is we lose vital time in submitting our objections and as there are only 21 days allowed for objections this date can easily be missed.
5. The Weekly List usually goes on-line on Thursday or Friday and posted out, but the start date is Monday so further days are lost.
6. All we are asking for is the plans to be loaded on-line at the same time as the application is registered.
In this day and age of more open Government and Localism we feel the council needs to upgrade its service to meet the aspirations of it residents.
Interestingly about a year a go I carried out a survey of all 32 London Boroughs by trying to access information on their planning web sites and Waltham Forest was one of the worst. Many of them linked planning applications to Google maps and their UDP/LDF so all the information needed to assess an application was held in one place.
Looking forward to your reply,
Signed on behalf of
Waltham Forest Civic Society
Bushwood Area Residents Association
Walthamstow Village Residents Association
Ferndale Residents Assocaiton
Cleveland Park Residents Association
Fight the Height
Blackhorse Action Group
--
Adrian Stannard
07508429678
www.wfoc.blogspot.co.uk<http:/To: Martin Esom
Cc: Cllr Chris Robbins; Adrian Stannard; Bill Measure; Jane Sterland; Judy Allen; Madeleine Munday; Patricia Gough; Yvonne Cross; Caramel Quin; Jonathon Crossley
Subject: On-line Planning issues
WALTHAM FOREST CIVIC SOCIETY
Martin
On the 12th July 2012 we sent this email to Steven Boyes and David Scourfield - see below. We then held a meeting with them and they explained the issues they had with the on-line planning system and that some aspects of it would be expensive to fix. Now a year on nothing has changed. We strongly believe we should have access to the planning applications on-line but David says it is not a statutory requirement.
Today I received by post the planning application lists for 19th August and 25th August which means the 21 day objection period is seriously reduced. We said we were happy to receive notification of them by email but that has never been implemented so the council is wasting money on unnecessary postage.
None of the plans for these dates that I have checked have the plans loaded which includes the Morrisons development in South Grove (2013/1252) and the online details show the closing date for objections is 24th September.
It really is time the council made sure its online planning system works. For years we have been complaining and nothing happens. A short term fix is to ensure the registration of the plans is delayed until the plans are loaded and we can see them.
We hope you can provide the resources to enable the public proper access to the plans. If you check other London Boroughs most of them provide a far superior service to Waltham Forest.
Adrian
Adrian Stannard
To: Steven Boyes - Interim Head of Regeneration and Planning
Davd Scourfield - Head of Development Control
I am writing on behalf of various groups (list below). We have been concerned for some time at the poor service provided by the on-line Planning Application system and since the upgrade to the Council's web site it has become even worse. We would like to meet you and David to discuss this and see how it can be improved. With the sophisticated technology available to everyone these days it seems very old fashioned having to go to Sycamore House to view printed plans.
Our main concerns are:
1. Time wasted in visiting Sycamore House - our travelling time and your staff having to find the plans.
2. Sycamore House only operates normal office hours so it is impossible for those with full time jobs to get to the office to see the plans.
3. In the past plans were available at libraries, but as far as we know that service is no longer available, so people coming from Leyton or Chingford have a long journey on top of the time waiting for the plans.
4. Planning Applications are registered and the details appear on the Weekly List and the on-line system. The information that is provided is adequate for us to decide if the plans need to be examined. But rarely do the plans appear on-line and last week I checked 17 applications and not one of them had the plans on line. The result of this is we have to ask the Planners when the plans will go on-line. Sometimes they appear a few days later and others never do. The consequence of this is we lose vital time in submitting our objections and as there are only 21 days allowed for objections this date can easily be missed.
5. The Weekly List usually goes on-line on Thursday or Friday and posted out, but the start date is Monday so further days are lost.
6. All we are asking for is the plans to be loaded on-line at the same time as the application is registered.
In this day and age of more open Government and Localism we feel the council needs to upgrade its service to meet the aspirations of it residents.
Interestingly about a year a go I carried out a survey of all 32 London Boroughs by trying to access information on their planning web sites and Waltham Forest was one of the worst. Many of them linked planning applications to Google maps and their UDP/LDF so all the information needed to assess an application was held in one place.
Looking forward to your reply,
Signed on behalf of
Waltham Forest Civic Society
Bushwood Area Residents Association
Walthamstow Village Residents Association
Ferndale Residents Assocaiton
Cleveland Park Residents Association
Fight the Height
Blackhorse Action Group
--
Adrian Stannard
07508429678
www.wfcs.org.uk<http://www.
www.friendsoflloydpark.org.uk<
--
Adrian Stannard
07508429678
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