Council to provide 24/7 access to Planning data
Thursday, August 11 2005
At an Executive meeting on 9 August 2005, Scottish Borders Council Members voted to invest nearly £112,000 as part of a £226,000 project to enable new electronic services for Planning and Building Standards.
The project will enable the Council to meet the Scottish Executive requirement to provide for electronic transactions in both services by the end of 2005.
As an extension of existing IT systems in the Council, the project will improve services for customers. From 2006, individuals will be able to use the internet 24 hours a day, seven days a week via the Council's website to view a host of information, including Planning and Building Standards application forms, policies, plans, committee agendas/minutes, officer reports, notices and weekly lists.
Ian Lindley, Director of Planning and Economic Development, said, "Not only will this improve customer services, it will also enable service efficiences. Customers will be able to obtain answers to frequently asked questions and to track progress with their own applications on the web, without the need to phone officers. This will help staff to spend more time on processing applications. It will also help us to liaise and join up services electronically with other agencies and statutory consultees (such as the Scottish Environment Protection Agency), which again will help us to improve our responsiveness."
SBC Executive Spokesman for Economic Development Douglas Younger commented, "Customers will still be able to talk to departmental staff, or to phone or write in, but it does provide a further alternative method to reach the Council's Planning and Economic Development Department. A growing number of people and businesses now expect fully interactive electronic options to be available."
The project should be substantially completed by Spring 2006.
Unified Solutions.