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Chorley Borough Council adds scaling
and measuring to its e-planning consultation service
The Business Problem
While no one is quite sure how the new government directives on
planning applications will turn out, the increasing emphasis on the
Local Planning Authorities to speed up the decision-making process
on planning applications and improve the service to the public.
Although many councils provide Internet access to planning
applications, the limitations of the service has meant that a visit
to the local planning offices has often still been necessary,
lessening the e-services benefits for both the citizen and the
Authority.
Chorley
Borough Council is the first Local Authority to benefit from the
ROCC PDF Tools Integration package from ROCC Computers. ROCC’s
application automates the process of standardising plans to the PDF
format. This means that a greater number of plans can be made
available online and that accessibility is improved as anyone with
the free Adobe Reader software can view them online. In addition,
the functionalities for the user are extended to provide Measuring
and Mark-up facilities. The Measuring tool enables an online user to
accurately estimate distances and areas and annotate and print/save
the image. The Mark-up facilities improve the ability to collaborate
on the plan, whether by planning officers during the decision making
process or by the public when commenting on a submitted plan.
“It is much better if our customers and the professional bodies we
work with can actually get measurements online,” says Louise Taylor,
Directorate Support Manager for Chorley Development and
Regeneration. “The scaled drawings that we receive can be anything
from A4 to A0 in size and the scale can be anywhere from 1/500 to
1/200. Sometimes we are dealing with professional consultees
offering highway advice and sometimes it can be members of the
public interested in a neighbour’s planning application. Very often,
they want to know distances and areas of features.” Up until now,
the fact that there were no measurements on the documents had
actually prevented some consultees from using the online planning
services. “We found that some people didn’t want electronic delivery
because they couldn’t scale from the plans and pass them back to us
with their comments,” says Louise. “In some cases,” Louise
continues, “there can be as many as 25 statutory and non-statutory
consultees who need to be approached, before a planning decision can
be reached.”
The Council were keen to avoid using any software that required them
to use hosted software, with the ongoing costs which that would
entail.
The Solution - Software
To take advantage of the opportunity to engage more effectively and
efficiently with their customers and professional bodies Chorley
Borough Council purchased, from ROCC, enterprise class software from
the Adobe LiveCycle suite of applications.
Adobe PDF Generator Pro to convert native application and industry
standard file formats (such as scanned images, Microsoft Office
files and CAD Drawings) into Adobe PDF files. Whilst ensuring
compliant output to meet government regulations.
Adobe Reader Extension Server to enable the extra functionality
within the PDF file, when opened in the free Acrobat Reader. The
features include the ability to:
The Solution - Integration
“For us, it was very important that the whole system should be
integrated,” says Louise. “One of the strengths of this solution
is the way that it is populated, seamlessly, from the
back-office software.”
The solution integrates Adobe modules PDF Generator and Reader
Extensions with the authorities existing document management
system ( Anite@work ). Chorley’s Planning and Building Control
Department use Anite@work to manage the flow of documentation
throughout the Planning and Building Regulation process.
ROCC through its’ long involvement in this project nationally,
and its status as an Adobe Solutions Partner, developed the
integration between the two Adobe package and the back office
software to automate the whole process. Allowing single
documents to thousands to be converted to PDF and have the
additional functionality added without intervention at any one
time.
As a consequence of this project and projects at a number of
other Local Planning Authorities, ROCC has achieved the status
of “Proven Supplier” for this solution with Planning Portal.
How this will help the Planning Office?
One of the big advantages for Chorley Council is the time they
expect to gain by reducing the time that Council staff spends
dealing face-to-face with customers with questions about
planning applications. An integrated solution using enterprise
class solution is key to this. There is a very significant
benefit in reducing the amount of paper involved in passing
entire planning applications to the Council’s consultees.
The
Measuring tool and Mark-up capabilities really helps to simplify
the administrative process because now, everyone can review the
plans, including the detailed measurements, online. Up until
now, this meant a trip to the planning office, but with the new
system, professional users will be able to view the plans from
their offices and members of the public can view them during the
evening on their home computers, and they are available 24 hours
a day. This is much better for members of the public who work
and who cannot take time off to visit the planning office during
the day time.
The initial response to PDF Tools at Chorley has been very
positive and there is keen interest from other local authorities
and bodies in the Lancashire region. The new system is also
proving to of interest to a number of other departments within
Chorley, such as the Conservation Department, and the Division
that deals with contaminated land.
Chorley Council is also very pleased with the service received
from ROCC. Lee Tomkins, e-planning Project Manager at Chorley
stated "ROCC have partnered Chorley in the delivery of the Adobe
Livecycle Planning solution for Planning and Building Control as
part of our continuing drive to push e-services to the masses.
The expertise of ROCC has been invaluable in the successful
delivery of these services, in terms of both an understanding of
requirement and technical knowledge. Throughout the project ROCC
have been consistently attentive to our business needs and have
demonstrated a level of professionalism far exceeding our
expectations."
Learn More:
Visit
the Chorley Borough Council Website
