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PLANNING Bulletin: Issue No 22 December 2003
e-Planning Scotland
Roger Kelly chairs the joint central and local government e-Planning Group, and here reflects on some of the issues.
Planning informs the key relationships between land, buildings and people.
Now technology offers us the chance to describe these links in new ways. It can increase the spread and efficiency of the planning service and focus on the needs of each user. In Scotland we've been analysing service improvements for quite a while. That helps when we take a look at the extras new technology can bring. We're more likely to know what works and what doesn't, what looks promising and where the problems are.
It's not just because we have our own planning policy guidelines, Planning Bulletin, Planning Helpline, and planning advice series, and a fairly close-knit community of stakeholders in Scotland - though all that helps of course. It's because the Executive's Planning Divisions make special efforts to spot things that are being done well and help to roll out real benefits more widely.
Our planning authority audits have explored the mechanics of the service in a spirit of appreciative enquiry. The annual Scottish Awards for Quality in Planning have drawn attention to a wealth of new initiatives.
In 2001 - in response to local authorities - we set up the joint e-Planning Group to look at the way councils were moving forward and to co-ordinate and accelerate progress in this field through example. We explored the practical experience of the service providers, shared problems, and started to put together a route map for progress.
And the users? Reporting user views was part of the audit programme, the Scottish Quality in Planning Awards, and the shared experience of the e-Planning Group. In 2001 the Executive had also launched its Getting Involved in Planning consultation and research. A representative sample of 1000 citizens showed big support for public involvement in planning (68% rated it very important, and the feeling ran right across Scotland and across all age groups) and consultation responses added in-depth ideas for improvement. The Executive's commitment has now been carried forward in the White Paper Your Place, Your Plan.
Electronic access will let more people get involved in planning in a way and at a time that suits them. Under the vision for 21st Century Government, all services which can feasibly be provided electronically should be available by 2005. The e-Planning Group has drafted a compact of objectives and targets for central and local government. Closer co-ordination of electronic planning services was agreed back in June by Scotland's Heads of Planning.
Preferring not to join England's Planning Portal, they looked instead for steps to strengthen local services, enhance existing websites and improve links between planning information providers at all levels, with the Executive's planning homepage as a national focus connecting to the internet pages of the Scottish Executive Inquiry Reporters Unit.
The Definitive National Addressing (DNA) project for Scotland supported by the Modernising Government Fund has a core objective for every local authority in Scotland to create a corporate address gazetteer, joined together as a BS7666 compliant master address database. Offering the effective prospect of relating land and property information in every part of Scotland, the project seeks to use this information to improve services to the citizen, with planning as an important theme.
We move forward thanks to a lot of pioneer work in Scottish councils. Moray and East Renfrewshire used the internet in development planning. Glasgow piloted SCOTLIS as one-stop access to information on land and property, and is building a range of e-planning services. Glasgow also hosts the innovative service delivering archaeology data for 11 planning authorities. Stirling, Falkirk and Clackmannanshire share the Forth Valley Geographic Information Service. South Ayrshire successfully deploys web-based mapping across the council on its intranet and is moving now towards the internet. Moray used European funding to create its ground-breaking webmap project. The Highland council with Communities Scotland developed its award-winning pilot for planning affordable housing in rural communities, using GIS to inform policy and present findings. In Shetland the challenge of marine planning resulted in innovative GIS spanning ordnance and admiralty mapping.
Councils have been squeezing more value out of their back-office systems by revisiting service principles while exploring software capabilities. East Lothian has moved forward with document scanning and management by I-documentsystems (IDOX) which scans application forms and plans and puts them on the internet for consultees and the public. Stirling has used ESRI's Public Access software to bring its UNIform casework system (now spatially enabled) out of the back-office and into the light of public view. Edinburgh has advanced on a multi-service front in contract with BT-Syntegra (and with ESRI, IDOX and other components) to e-enable its planning and building control services and revolutionise its property enquiry certificates. These councils are in close touch with service users. By driving forward together to targets jointly agreed in our e-planning Compact, I think we'll continue to make steady progress.
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