Tag: customer service

Planning Helpdesk and Weekly Lists – Christmas and New Year arrangements  

View from Princes Street of Edinburgh Castle covered in snow with a sunset in the background.

The Planning Helpdesk will be closed from Monday 25 December 2023 and will reopen on Wednesday 3 January 2024.

Queries received over this time will be dealt with starting on Wednesday 3 January 2024.

Our online resources and self-service options will still be available 24/7, ensuring that you can find information and resources whenever you need them.

We have a wide range of planning quick guides – these answer a lot of commonly asked questions, including for

Planning guidance gives advice on topics to guide new development. This guidance answers a lot of commonly asked questions for

The Planning Portal is the easiest & quickest way to comment on planning applications. When you submit a comment over the planning portal, we receive it within minutes.

Planning enforcement issues can also be reported online.

Weekly lists & planning advertisements

Please note there will be NO planning weekly lists issued Monday 25 December 2023.

The next weekly list will be issued on Wednesday 3 January 2024.

The following dates apply for the planning advertisement in the Edinburgh Evening News

  • Friday 22 December 2023 – Advertisement
  • Friday 29 December 2023 – NO Advertisement
  • Friday 5 January 2024 – Advertisement

Updated Planning and Enforcement Charters

View of Edinburgh looking West towards the castle from Calton Hill. Cranes tower above New Town & the Dugald Stewart Monument sits in the foreground.

We recently updated two of our customer service charters. These refreshed charters set out the service we aim to provide and what happens at different stages of the planning process.

The Planning Customer Service Charter

The Planning Enforcement Charter

The charters set out more specific standards linked to our three main responsibilities which are

  • planning policy
  • development management
  • planning enforcement

The charters provide details of how to contact us and report planning breaches.

We also have a wide range of guidance on our website at www.edinburgh.gov.uk/planning including for

If you still have a question, get in touch!

planning@edinburgh.gov.uk

Sign up to this blog to keep up to date on planning news, and follow us on X (formerly Twitter) @planningedin

Planning Customer Forum Virtual Sessions

We will be holding another series of Customer Forum virtual sessions this October & November and so thought we’d share some of discussions we had and feedback we received back in March. 

The sessions in March were our first ever Customer Forum sessions held online as they were previously held in person.

We have all had to adapt to new ways of working since Covid and so the sessions were an opportunity for customers and Council officers to come together to share how we have all adapted to the challenges and to discuss how we can change how we work together in the future.

Back in March of this year we discussed matters like:

COMMUNITY GROUPS

  • How community groups find digital engagement
  • How a largely digital-based approach to Planning engagement could be developed
  • Our webpages and how they could be improved
  • How community groups use social media

HOUSEHOLDER APPLICANTS & AGENTS

  • Application submission matters and our validation guidance
  • How site visits were being affected by Covid and the need for additional information to fully assess applications
  • Certificate’s of Lawfulness vs Planning Permission
  • Permitted development rights and associated guidance
  • How Covid has affected the way we communicate

MAJOR/ LARGE APPLICANTS, AGENTS, SOLICITORS & ARCHITECTS

Come along to one of the October or November sessions via Microsoft Teams and tell us what you think:

Tuesday 12 October 1500-1630 – Community groups

Thursday 28 October 1500-1630 – Householder and small-scale local development applicants and agents

Tuesday 9 November 1500-1630 – Legal agreements, with solicitors and major/larger local applicants and agents

If you or a colleague/ group member would like to attend a forum session, please email planning.servicedelivery@edinburgh.gov.uk with your details.

Please state what company/organisation you will be representing & which session you would like to attend, and we’ll contact attendees with joining instructions for the online meeting closer to the time.

We hope you can join us and help improve the Planning service for the benefit of its customers and the city.

Customer Update – Help us to help you

We are continuing to experience a record level of applications since our last Customer Update a few weeks ago. Whilst this is positive for the City, it is a particularly challenging time for the service as it is coinciding with reduced resources.

To manage the workload effectively, a new system has been put in place where new applications are being put in a holding system until a case officer becomes available. This approach will ensure that workloads are manageable for case officers.

We will be dealing with applications in chronological order and once assigned, the case officer will only contact you if:

1) additional information is required to assess the application;

2) amendments are needed to your proposals; or

3) your application is likely to be refused.

We remain committed to providing good customer care for each application but inevitably, it is going to take longer than normal to process applications. Because we are concentrating on determining applications as quickly as possible, there will be an impact on other aspects of our work such as responding to queries.

Help us to help you:

It would help significantly if you could provide the following information at the time of application submission (or whilst it is hold):

  • Photographs showing the location of the work and the wider context (including interiors for listed building consent applications)
  • Dimensions on the plans
  • Contextual information i.e. neighbouring windows/ extensions (if relevant)
  • 45 degree daylighting calculations (if relevant)

Before applying please read our planning guidelines – these answer a lot of commonly asked questions, including for;

Your patience and understanding is appreciated. We will get there but it is going to take longer.