The Scottish Government

Name

Ruth Findlay

Job title

Organisation

South Lanarkshire Council

Address

Montrose House, 154 Montrose Crescent, Hamilton, ML3 6LB

Telephone

01698 455943

Fax

01698 455948

Email

Ruth.findlay@southlanarkshire.gov.uk

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Development Plans Development Management Development on the Ground Community Involvement

Title of entry

Local Plan Web Consultation

Professional knowledge Innovation Management Sustainable development

Partnership Community interest Regeneration Customer satisfaction

The South Lanarkshire Local Plan ( SLLP) is the first Council wide local plan to be delivered by South Lanarkshire Council ( SLC). Crucial to the development of a local plan is consultation with stakeholders who might be government agencies, developers, professional agents, specialist interest groups, community councils, residents groups or individuals.

Such is the increasing importance of the local plan that consultation activity has to be effective in reaching its audience and efficient for the planners subsequently analysing the issues raised.

SLC recognises these problems and has taken steps to consult stakeholders in a way that makes the Local Plan more accessible for the public and for a reduced administrative effort makes gains in the analysis and consideration of consultation response. The use of technology particularly in electronic recording and internet based consultation has been employed for the consultation associated with the finalised version of the SLLP.

SLLP is the first Council wide local plan to be delivered by SLC. It replaces five area based plans that have been in place for between ten and four years. It is therefore a highly significant document for the Council setting policy on future development locations and standards for the next five years. Crucial to the development and success of a local plan is consultation with all who have an interest in its contents.

Such is the increasing importance of the local plan that successive consultation activity by the Council first of all on its area based plans and then on the draft version of the SLLP, has become more and more of an administrative burden. This has the effect of prolonging the timescales for the preparation of the plans and capturing more resources in terms of professional officer time to deal with the mass of response. The combined effect can be a loss of relevance of plan policies as the gap between preparatory work and final adoption extends and the dilution of the consultation effect as it is seen as a legislative necessity rather than adding value to the plan making process. For customers to, the process of making representations can be problematic. Hard copies of the Local Plan are sent to libraries and other public buildings or can be purchased however for members of the public this can then constrain the access to the document such that they might study it and make considered comment.

South Lanarkshire Council recognises these problems and has taken proactive steps to consult stakeholders in a way that makes the Local Plan more accessible for the public and for a reduced administrative effort makes gains in the analysis and consideration of consultation response. The use of technology particularly in electronic recording and internet based consultation has been employed for the consultation associated with the finalised version of the SLLP. This project seeks to extend the choices available to customers in how to make representation by allowing electronic means as well paper submissions. Furthermore by seeking to offer a user friendly experience for those looking at the Local Plan on-line and then making submissions on-line the objective was to increase the number of electronic representations made therefore reducing the administrative task.

The Local Plan, with all its component documents, plans and backgound reports has therefore been published on the SLC web site and a special version of the plan's written statements has been produced which allows the direct submission of a representation on the content of the plan via an on-line form. A specific e-mail account was also established to allow customers to e-mail forms and any supplementary documents.

The pages that follow record how the project was identified, scoped, implemented and the results to date. The over-riding result has been the opening up of the consultation process to as wide a stakeholder group as possible and add up to a better service to customers and a more open and accessible means of people having their say about the local plan.

The objectives of the project were established:-

• Utilise the world wide web to give choice to customers seeking to submit representations to the SLLP

• Identify a system which was capable of delivering a combination of document publication and on-line consultation and which could provide a user friendly and intuitive public interface.

• Increase the number of on-line and e-mail representations received compared to the previous consultation exercise.

• Develop capabilities to manage representations, improve transparency of process, automate reports and outputs.

• Establish the new system for publication of the finalised SLLP (in August 2006)

The project was identified at the end of 2005 following a period of public consultation for the draft version of the South Lanarkshire Local Plan ( SLLP). Project planning was undertaken in early 2006, and the system has been available for use since August 2006.

Clear responsibilities for the project were identified at the outset of the project. The project sponsor, the Head of Planning and Building Standards Services identified an IT Project Manager and a planning project manager to take forward and implement the project. Using standard project management methodology based on Prince2 a detailed mandate was developed to scope out the project requirements and deliverables and to set out the business case for the project. A project plan for implementation and delivery was also developed to set delivery milestones in line with the timescales for Local Plan development and consultation.

An investigation was carried out on best practice in the delivery of on-line publications and consultation this led to the identification of software product developed by a company called Limehouse. The main user base for this software was the public sector in England where it was used for publication of statutory documentation.

This product was identified as meeting all of the essential functionality criteria laid out in the project plan however significant adaptation of the standard product content and terminology would be required to allow its use in a Scottish legislative frameworks. Both project managers therefore undertook to work with the software developers to review and implement required change, adapt the product and carry out user training in time for its use in the publication and consultation period of the South Lanarkshire Local Plan.

A Planning/ IT implementation team was set up to review any issues and change requirements and ensure there were no significant delays to delivery of the system.

The system allows for managers in the Planning Service to track and manage representations made. As an entirely internet based system administrative access can be made from any computer in the office, the home or 'on site', anywhere there is an internet connection. The Planning/ IT staff have been trained in the use of the system and all are making active contributions to its development.

Development of the system was completed in time for production and publication of the consultation document in August 2006. All of the Local Plan's component documents, plans and backgound reports and the 'web consultation' version of the plan's written statements was published on the SLC web site on the day of advertisement of the start of the six week consultation period. Extensive publicity in the local press highlighted the availability of these documents on the web site and of a direct e-mail address for local plan matters ( localplan@southlanarkshire.gov.uk). Organisations for which the Planning Service already held an e-mail address for were contacted by e-mail informing them of the availability of the on-line consultation system and encouraging the use of it.

A work flow for dealing with representations has been established to ensure systematic and consistent recording of representations received. All officers dealing with the system have received appropriate training during system implementation and roll-out and refresher training prior to implementation to ensure that practices and processes are understood and implemented.

The key partner was Limehouse Publishing who worked closely with the Council to adapt the Limehouse software for use within the Scottish framework which meant that the system could be used in any local plan consultation exercise in Scotland.

The decision to procure a new £35,000 system was not taken lightly. The project plan looked specifically at areas of expected benefits and identified several savings in efficiency and effectiveness that justified a sound economic argument for the system. The benefits encompassed:-

• Project management/control - workflows established and quality checking an integral part of the system

• Ease of publication - the publication software produces file formats for hard copy production, web publication and web consultation from one source file

• Reduce amount of manual recording of consultation responses - as more responses submitted on-line or can be directly captured from other sources in the consultation system

• Free up staff resources normally devoted to manual recording to work on the assessment and responses to representations received.

• Improvement in time taken to respond to representations

In all the benefits add up to a better service to customers and a more open and accessible means of people having their say about the local plan. The initial start up cost was also tempered by full training and technical support from Limehouse being made available. All local plan documents will now be developed in this system and with the new Planning Bill due to place a duty on planning authorities to produce development plans every five years and to produce reviews/monitoring statements in the interim it is likely that the system will be in near constant use.

Local Plan Web Consultation is nominated by South Lanarkshire Council for a Scottish Award for Quality in Planning for the following reasons:

• Good partnership working has been established with Limehouse which augers well for a long term working relationship to continue to improve the system and adapt to any changes required by the new Planning Bill

• Improved management of process of hard copy and electronic publication

• Consolidate data handling for the recording of representations into one system

• Enable direct data capture of representations made on-line

• Visibility of representation made on the web

• Savings in officer time and resources by streamlining the administrative process allowing staff resources to be allocated to analysis, reporting and further activities relating to the content of the representations

• Added value to the plan making process

• SLC were proactive in making the Local Plan more accessible for the public

• Provided a user friendly experience

• Delivered better service to customers, allowing a more open and accessible means of people having their say about the Local Plan