Planning and Building Control service standards

We aim to provide a high quality service

For our Planning Customers we seek to:

answer telephones within 4 rings and provide an answering service when the office is unmanned;
respond to voicemail and telephone messages within 24 hours;
respond to letters, faxes and emails within 15 working days;
ensure a professional officer is available to provide advice during office hours;
advise whether planning permission is required in response to a written request within 10 days;
advise whether planning permission is likely to be granted in response to a written request within 10 days;
encourage pre-application discussions and take the development team approach to large applications;
give the name of the planning officer dealing with your application and their direct line telephone number when acknowledging formal registration of the application;
visit the site of every application;
undertake negotiations if appropriate in the course of processing applications;
24 hour access to view current planning applications;
acknowledge letters of representation on planning applications;
make contact with the agent/applicant, at least once during the processing of an application (approx. at 4-5 weeks after registration)
monitor up to 10% of new development and associated plan conditions to ensure compliance and adherence to approved plans
Initial response to Enforcement complaints within 20 working days
defend planning decisions of the Council
review recently built development in terms of its quality of design and impact on local area
set performance targets in consultation with planning user groups (representatives of our customers)

For our Building Control Customers we seek to:

discuss your project with you at any time whether plans have been deposited or not.
respond to letters within five working days
answer telephones quickly and provide and answering service when the office in unmanned.
acknowledge receipt of your Building Regulation application with three working days.
check plans within 10 working days and provide you with a comprehensive list of observations.
approve 85% of Full Plans applications
issue a formal decision on Full Plans applications within five weeks (or two months with your agreement).
visit your site on the same day if we are contacted before 10am.
issue a Completion Certificate when your project is complete.
if things go wrong we will deal with your complaints quickly and sympathetically.

Page last updated 24 April 2006

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