Planning - there's an awful lot of it about! Indeed, the planning department at Ipswich Borough Council are currently dealing with record levels of planning applications - proof that Ipswich is booming. This means a lot more work for our already hard-working team. Planning applications are complex animals - lots of letters, lots of paper, lots of phone calls - and that's just for the public. Isn't there another way of doing business, one that cuts out a lot of the paper? Well, yes, there is actually. Step forward Stephen French, IBC's online planning specialist and the man masterminding the e-future of council planning services. Others have thought of it, of course, but Ipswich Borough Council is taking it all the way. The Council is in the top 10% of authorities offering online planning services and its campaign is constantly evolving and being improved.
Stephen said: "It is a huge task to sort out the information into accessible compartments and we have tried to second guess what people want those compartments to be. For instance, we have split planning applications, both current and past, into wards, streets, building type, application type, recent decisions, as well as catalogue them by architect and still offer an Ipswich-wide service for people who might be moving into the area." Maps of varying detail are also included. The good thing is the whole system is easy to use. Get on to the Borough's website (http://www.ipswich.gov.uk/) look for the section "online planning" and away you go.