Planning and Building Standards – Page 3

Building Standards – New futures

We’re committed to investing in people as is key to developing the building standards services which serves our great city. You might have noticed a few changes in our team in recent months.

In our recruitment drive, we promoted Daniel Henderson to team manager for the south-east team and welcomed three new assistant building surveyors – Audrey Vass, Daniel Peart and Stuart Young.

Our apprentices recently visited a site with Senior Surveyor Douglas Collins, who has now retired, where they met Steven McGuire from CALA Homes.

We’re also proud that, for the first time ever, we’ve given three young people the opportunity to start a great career as building standards surveyors through our new apprentice posts. Working in partnership with Heriot Watt University, Jessica Morris, Rebekah Mack and Daniel O’Hara will develop core skills at university while working on building warrant applications with our team as well as playing a key part in our service improvements.

Councillor Neil Gardiner, convener of the Council’s planning committee and development sub-committee, explained: “Investing in careers and development of our team underpins our commitment to becoming one of the top performing building standards verification services in Scotland.

“It also demonstrates our commitment to facilitating Edinburgh’s successful economic and infrastructure growth.”

Planning and Building Standards systems downtime: 1–7 November

As a follow up to our previous blog post, we can confirm that the Planning and Building Standards systems upgrade will commence on Thursday 1 November with completion expected on Wednesday 7 November.

As a reminder, the upgrade will impact on the delivery of the service and the planning and building standards portal will be unavailable during this time. The weekly list of planning applications will not be issued and you will be unable to view and comment on applications.

The Development Management Sub Committee scheduled for 7 November has been cancelled. All outstanding items of business will be dealt with at subsequent meetings. The Local Review Body meeting will continue as planned on 14 November.

When the systems are back online, the weekly list of planning applications will include newly submitted applications and decisions. Decisions will not be issued during the period of downtime.

Additional time will be given to comment on applications affected by the downtime.

The internal systems we use to manage applications will also be unavailable which means staff will have no access to planning and building standards records.

The upgrade will have no effect on the national eDevelopment Portal and planning and building warrant applications can continue to be submitted in this way. However, we would ask you not to submit new applications during the downtime as they will not be registered which could create a backlog that leads to delays in processing.

You can keep up to date by following us on Twitter @planningedin or subscribing to the Blog.

Planning and Building Standards systems upgrade

An upgrade of the Planning and Buildings Standards systems is planned for early November this year, with an expected downtime of one full week. The upgrade will result in a number of improvements, such as making it easier to view documents, comment on planning applications and share information using social media.

The process to upgrade our systems will impact on the delivery of the service and the planning and building standards portal will be unavailable during this time.

The weekly list of planning applications will not be issued and you will be unable to view and comment on applications. When our systems are back online, the weekly list of planning applications will include newly submitted applications. Additional time will be given to comment on applications affected by the downtime.

The internal systems we use to manage applications will also be unavailable which means staff will have no access to planning and building standards records.

Planning and building warrant applications can continue to be made online through eDevelopment. However, we would encourage applicants and agents not to submit applications during this period of downtime because new applications will not be able to be registered.

Further information will be issued in the coming weeks on the exact dates of the downtime. You can keep up to date by following us on Twitter @planningedin or subscribing to the blog.

Planning and Building Standards contacts

Earlier this month we made a number of changes to manager responsibilities in the Planning and Building Standards teams. The updated leaflet below sets out what the teams do, who the managers are and how to get in touch.

Planning and Building Standards service leaflet 2018

Don’t forget, you can continue to access a range of our services online, including:

Celebrating World Town Planning Day 2016 and the Scottish Awards for Quality in Planning

Hello,

World Town Planning Day 2016

Today marks World Town Planning Day, an annual event which has been running since 1949, where planners from across the globe engage in activities to raise awareness about the importance of planning in their communities. This international day sees 30 countries celebrating the achievements of planners and their contributions to the communities that they serve by participating in various activities.

The theme for this year’s World Town Planning Day is “Cities and Climate Change: Local Responses to a Global Challenge” and will be discussed in an online conference on the Planning the World website later on today.

It is important on days like today to remember Scotland’s very own Sir Patrick Geddes, who was one of the founding fathers of the British Town Planning movement. Geddes was instrumental in the improvement of the Old Town in the 19^th Century. Geddes’ theory was that in order to improve a place, you had to be a part of the community. He moved his family into James Court, which at the time was a near-slum off the Lawnmarket at the top of the Royal Mile. He started by improving the building in which he and his family lived, which then inspired his neighbours and wider community into communal action. He had proved his theory.

paddy-geddes — Our Tribute to Sir Patrick Geddes here at Waverley Court

Scottish Awards for Quality in Planning 2016

To coincide with World Town Planning Day, the Scottish Awards for Quality in Planning 2016 will be taking place this evening. Tonight we will be attending the awards and we are delighted that two of our projects have been shortlisted. These are:

The Open Space Strategy 2010
The Planning and Building Standards Lean Reviews

As well as a joint submission with Fife Council for the Forth Bridge World Heritage Partnership Project.

The awards are run by the Scottish Government and this year they have introduced a new People’s Choice Award category. This allowed you to vote for any of the submissions and includes our submission for the use of the Place Standard in South Queensferry.

We will update you as to how we get on.

Wish us Luck!