Prioritising your planning applications in West Northamptonshire

Colleagues across the planning teams in West Northamptonshire Council came together last week (15 – 19 August) for a planning focus week, which saw the service deliver the first phase of their customer enhancement plan.

As part of the strategy to implement a number of positive changes to the planning service, for five days the planning teams worked closely together to process an exceptional number of applications.

Throughout the week decisions on 273 cases were determined, nearly four times the average decisions made in one week. New planning applications waiting to be processed have reduced by an average of one third across West Northamptonshire, with older applications waiting a decision continuing to be prioritised in the forthcoming weeks.

Cllr Rebecca Breese, Cabinet Member for strategic planning, built environment and rural affairs, said: "The planning focus week gave staff the opportunity to deliver exceptional results which was achieved through close working across the planning service.

"We are working hard to improve the service’s efficiency in processing new and outstanding planning applications and enhancing the customer experience.

"I would like to extend a huge thank you to all members of the planning teams across West Northamptonshire for all their hard work over the last week to complete the planning focus week.

"As well as a thank you to applicants, planning agents and members of the public for all their support and patience during this time."

The planning service will continue to organise regular planning focus weeks in order to prioritise processing new planning applications to reduce the overall response time, and come to decisions on existing applications in order to improve resident’s experience in the forthcoming months.

To find out more about planning services across West Northamptonshire visit - Planning and Building Control.