Planning website will launch soon
A NEW planning website could be up and running by the end of year.
[caption id="attachment_39634" align="alignright" width="175" caption="Claire Barrett, one of Environment's principal planning officers, addresses architects and surveyors at The Princess Royal Centre for the Performing Arts yesterday about changes to planning laws brought in earlier this year. (0874639)"]
The launch of the new feature of the States website, Planning Explorer, had to be delayed due to security concerns.
It has been designed to show all live planning applications and where they are in the system. It will also be linked to map software so people can easily plot locations.
At this stage, the plans in full will not be available online. However, that might be something for the future.
Principal planning officer Elaine Hare said it was a big step forward.
'It means anybody will be able to see the progress of a project and what the key dates are.'
The site is to be updated daily.
Ms Hare said the system has been delayed while programmers made the site secure.
'There have been some complicating factors,' she said.
'Security has been an important issue. It does need to be secure, because the public will be getting access to the States database. It risked being a back door to the States system, so it had to be protected.'
