This allows any member of the public to search and review planning documents online. It means that the process is far more transparent than it once was, and allows residents to keep an eye on how applications in their area are progressing.
Unfortunately, it's slightly misleading in one sense. The system mentions that it is updated daily, when in fact it is batch updated on a weekly basis with support/objections from residents. This causes quite an amount of consternation when a response is sent and does not appear, resulting in residents thinking their response has been lost or ignored.
So I've written to the head of planning:
We all know how crucial planning applications are to those involved. I have noted that one major concerns that residents have is that their application/response will somehow slip through the net. This is especially crucial with negative responses when they believe an application will have a serious impact on their quality of life.Lets hope we can get it changed. Incidentally, it's still branded MBC as well, although I'm not so bothered about that.
Therefore, there is a tendency to check the planning portal once a submission has been made to ensure that it has been taken on board and not lost. Regrettably, the system displays in the bottom right hand corner:
"Data is updated daily at 2:30am"
Which is very misleading, and for the reasons described above causes distress when someone's response does not appear.
Can we either update the system more frequently, or have this text changed? I believe it would be very easy to do and would prevent a good number of bitten nails and ground teeth.
