DPA continues to work hard on communicating planning process

The Development & Planning Authority agrees that openness and transparency must be a core value of the planning process, as it is for the States of Guernsey as a whole. For decades, islanders have been able to view plans in person and make comments on them if they have objections (or wish to show support) and all of that is essential in ensuring fair decisions can be made and understood. But there is no doubt the expectations of islanders have, rightly, changed now that we are in a digital age where so much of what we do is online – quick and with no fuss.

Many islanders will be aware that the States of Guernsey recently signed a 10-year contract with leading digital firm Agilisys that has allowed the government’s Smart Guernsey programme to begin in earnest. As a result, trials to provide some States services digitally for the first time will start next year.

For our Planning Service, this means we can now press forward more quickly with one of our big ambitions, providing planning documents online. We have been working on this for the past two years, liaising with local architects and parish officials, but progress has not been as fast as we would like due to a lack of resources and digital capacity. With our partnership with Agilisys in place we are hopeful that we’ll have an online service in place in the near future.

With regard to consultation periods, we recognise that the process is not always clear. Each planning application has several stages during which feedback can be provided. The window for each of these stages, which relate to technical consultations, the press listing, or the site notice physically placed at the location, are different and begin and end at different times. In November, we held a presentation called ‘Best Way to Have Your Say’, where members of the community had the opportunity to find out how best to engage with the Planning Service.

The videos of the three short talks are available online at https://www.gov.gg/comment_on_an_application.

In the case of Education’s plans for secondary schools, these plans have been treated the same as any other and the Committee for Education, Sport & Culture has complied fully with the process. The consultation window was always due to ultimately close in late January, not over Christmas, and the date of 27 December was the closure of only part of the consultation process. We apologise for the confusion that arose as a result. We have added to our online guidance to provide more clarity and are looking at ways to improve this web page.

The D&PA has worked hard this year to expand and improve its communication and the public’s understanding of how we work. We have done this by increasing our engagement with the media, providing more information online and through workshops and public presentations to explain the planning process and give islanders opportunities to come and speak with us.

We do not wish to be complacent and will continue to improve our communication so islanders understand how the planning process works. We welcome feedback and use it to inform the improvements we make and we will look to simplify parts of the process where possible.

We hope that our ongoing efforts demonstrate our commitment to transparency and our desire to help islanders have a good understanding of our planning system.

DEPUTY DAWN TINDALL

President of the Development & Planning Authority