Planning Practice Note:
Service Standards
INTRODUCTION
The purpose of this Practice Note is to give details of the Planning, Building Control and Land Charges Service's commitment to providing a high quality service to its customers.
BACKGROUND
The LPA issues over 70 BVPNs, which form part of our Service to our customers and the public. This Customer Care Charter is effectively a summary of many of them. Please refer to the relevant BVPN for details.
WEBSITE ADDRESSES
A great deal of information about the Service is available on the Council's website under the heading 'Planning Online' including:
- The Local Plan;
- Best Value Practice Notes
- Weekly List of planning applications
GENERAL
This section relates to aspects that apply to all parts of the Service.
- The Service exists to ensure the highest possible environmental quality for South Shropshire and developments that meet the economic, social and environmental needs of the community.
- We provide a Service which is accountable and open to scrutiny
- We deal with our customers in an efficient, helpful and courteous way that helps them get the best from the Service.
- Officer advice is as accurate and objective as is possible without formal consideration of an application.
- Our Services are accessible to all.
- Our Reception and telephones are staffed 5 days a week:
- 8:40am - 5:15pm, Monday-Thursday;
- 8:40am - 4:30pm, Friday.
- We welcome early discussions on all prospective applications and problems with current ones to ensure that customers get the highest quality of service.
- If an officer is unavailable you may leave a message with Reception or by voicemail.
- Staff have direct telephone lines with voicemail facilities to ensure that the most appropriate person answers every enquiry. Customers who want to speak to Reception and leave a message instead are invited to do so.
- We aim to return all calls within 48 hours.
- We aim to answer correspondence within 5 working days or (when this is not possible) we acknowledge receipt of correspondence within 5 working days and reply fully within 15 working days. Our target is to achieve this in 90% of cases.
- Appointments may be made with Officers at any mutually convenient time.
- Special arrangements may be made for meetings with officers on site or at Enterprise House, Bishop's Castle.
- We can provide documents in large print, Braille, audiotape, Welsh, Urdu, Punjabi and Mandarin (see BVPN 56).
- We utilise a translation service catering for many languages.
- We take complaints very seriously. We participate fully in the Council's corporate complaints procedure. We have a Complaints Officer for the Service to whom complaints and enquiries should be referred.
PLANNING
This section relates to the Planning, Enforcement and Conservation aspects of the Service.
- We aim to meet government targets for determining planning applications within set periods according to their type and complexity.
- We operate a one-stop-shop facility for Planning and Building Control applicants who request it.
- Planning and Building Control plans are crosschecked for consistency.
- We aim to meet best practice targets of registering applications within 3 days of receipt and issuing decision notices within 3 days of the decision.
- Every application has a case officer whose name and telephone number appears in all correspondence.
- We consult any partner organisations early in the process to minimise the time taken to deal with the application.
- Over 90% of applications are delegated to officers to decide to ensure they are dealt with promptly.
- We advertise all applications:
- with a site notice;
- on a published weekly list;
- on our website (for address please refer to the section on website addresses);
- (where required by law) in the Tuesday edition of the Shropshire Star.
- We notify immediate neighbours of applications in writing.
- All representations received are:
- acknowledged;
- reported in summary on any report to the Development Control Committee;
- followed up with information about the outcome.
- We regret that we cannot enter into correspondence over letters of representation.
- Parish and Town Councils and Meetings are consulted on every application in their area.
- Parish/Town Councils
- In certain cases we allow the public to address the Development Control Committee about developments that concern them (see BVPN 70 Public speaking at Development Control Committee ).
- Enforcement cases reported by the public are always investigated, in accordance with our adopted policy.
- Officer advice is available by telephone and at Reception to a programme (see BVPN 21 Planning reception and access to officers ).
BUILDING CONTROL
This section relates to the Building Control aspects of the service:
- We register all applications within one working day of receiving them.
- We aim to deal with 80% of submitted plans within 15 working days of receiving them.
- We deal with all other cases as quickly as the complexity of the case allows but always within the maximum of 8 weeks prescribed by the Building Regulations.
- We operate a one-stop-shop facility for Planning and Building Control applicants who request it.
- Planning and Building Control plans are crosschecked for consistency.
- We consult any partner organisations (and commission checks on structural calculations) early in the process to minimise the time taken to deal with the application.
- We consult the Fire Officer in the case of buildings designated under the Fire Precautions Act 1971.
- We will make a site inspection when requested (by card or telephone) before 10:00am on the day concerned.
- We respond to urgent reports of dangerous structures immediately and all other cases on the next working day.
- Officer advice is always available 8:40am - 10:30am and from about 2:00pm - 5:15pm (4:30pm Fridays) and at other times by arrangement.
LAND CHARGES
This section relates to the Land Charges aspects of the service
- We provide trained staff to deal with your searches and queries.
- We normally respond to searches within 10 working days (our target is to achieve this in 95% of cases).
- We reply to specific requests for urgent searches whenever possible at no extra charge.
- We do our best to make the register available to personal searchers within 24 hours of a request.
- We reply to correspondence:
- within 2 working days; or
- acknowledge it within 2 working days and reply within 10 working days.
- We update the Land Charge Register continually as new charges are received.
CONTACTS
For further information, please contact Planning Support.
© Copyright South Shropshire District Council,
Stone House, Corve Street, Ludlow,
Shropshire, SY8 1DG. Tel: (01584) 813000
Fax: (01584) 813128
e-mail: planning@southshropshire.gov.uk
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