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Press Ad savings - Use QR code?

John Mawdsley, Addaswyd 21 Diwrnod yn ôl.

Press Ad savings - Use QR code?

New Member Postiadau: 9 Dyddiad Ymuno: 29/06/2015 Bostiadau diweddar

Hi all,

We are looking at savings to be made and we currently spend £100k p/a on publishing press ads in our local newspaper. Has anyone looked into a more modern solution? Could we replace the text in the press ad with a simple QR code that links through to our public access system and weekly list? By reducing the size of the press ad and removing officer time producing the press ad would save us quite a bit!

Thanks in advance,

John Mawdsley

Babergh & Mid Suffolk District Councils

Hans Bray, Addaswyd 17 Diwrnod yn ôl.

RE: Press Ad savings - Use QR code?

Enthusiast Postiadau: 41 Dyddiad Ymuno: 23/09/2019 Bostiadau diweddar

I can sympathise with the costs and looking for savings. However, gvien newpaper ads are one of the backstops for those hard to reash audiences who are less likely to be digitally enabled, I'm not sure that a QR code replacement would meet an equality impact assessment for such a change - and I certainly wouldn't make such a drastic change without undertaking that assessment.

Hans

Surrey County Council

Alastair Nicholson, Addaswyd 10 Diwrnod yn ôl.

RE: Press Ad savings - Use QR code?

New Member Postiadau: 8 Dyddiad Ymuno: 19/10/2011 Bostiadau diweddar

The requirement for the publicity notice is set out in The Town and Country Planning (Development Management Procedure) (England) Order 2015 (as amended). It requires publication of the notice in a newspaper circulating in the locality in which the land to which the application relates is situated.

The form the publicity should take is set out in the appended Schedules. As originally drafted it looks like the neighbour notification letter, site notice and the press advert were intended to be the same. I seem to recall that the requirement is to reproduce these notices exactly, or “in like kind.” Over the years Authorities have taken “like kind” to be pragmatic and create letters, notices and adverts that do the job at the least cost. For newspaper adverts that means limiting information to a minimum, using small font and minimising “white space” in the advert.

There is a separate requirement to publish the information on your website, so the question is if you were challenged to explain why your advert doesn’t look like the template in the Procedure Order are you happy you can either defend your position. Or I suppose the real question is how risk adverse is your Council? Are you prepared to take the risk and accept the consequences if you are ever challenged?

Alastair Nicholson

Buckinghamshire Council

Mike Holmes, Addaswyd 9 Diwrnod yn ôl.

RE: Press Ad savings - Use QR code?

New Member Postiadau: 11 Dyddiad Ymuno: 24/01/2018 Bostiadau diweddar

I agree with Alistair's response and would point out that over many years Local Authorities and other bodies have lobbied Government to remove this burden and time factor - you have to comply with newspaper publication deadlines and this may delay the process.

Richard Crawley, Addaswyd 8 Diwrnod yn ôl.

RE: Press Ad savings - Use QR code?

Expert Postiadau: 256 Dyddiad Ymuno: 07/12/2011 Bostiadau diweddar

I don't want to read too much into it, but I have been asked just the other day how much of a difference a change to the press notice requirement would make to councils.

I don't have any modern data - does anyone fancy sharing their annual cost with me? I can then scale it up to make some sort of national estimate.

Faye Smith, Addaswyd 8 Diwrnod yn ôl.

RE: Press Ad savings - Use QR code?

New Member Postiadau: 9 Dyddiad Ymuno: 20/10/2011 Bostiadau diweddar

Hi

Tewkesbury Borough's spend for 23/24 was £19k covering about 80 adverts, some of which would have been for a single application, others would have listed multiple submissions.

Thanks, Faye

John Mawdsley, Addaswyd 8 Diwrnod yn ôl.

RE: Press Ad savings - Use QR code?

New Member Postiadau: 9 Dyddiad Ymuno: 29/06/2015 Bostiadau diweddar

Hi Richard,

We spend £100k p/a across our two District Councils.

Thanks for all the responses so far. This is not something that we would jump into without proper research and legal advice, but rather we were wondering if anyone else had any good ideas to move us at least into the 20th Century. People are much more used to QR codes now after C19, but I appreciate that we are hamstrung by the regs.

John

Hans Bray, Addaswyd 7 Diwrnod yn ôl.

RE: Press Ad savings - Use QR code?

Enthusiast Postiadau: 41 Dyddiad Ymuno: 23/09/2019 Bostiadau diweddar

As a 2 tier county council (there are 21 of us) we spend less - Surrey CCs rounded up average spend for the last few years (exc covid year) is about £14k pa

Hans

Richard Crawley, Addaswyd 6 Diwrnod yn ôl.

RE: Press Ad savings - Use QR code?

Expert Postiadau: 256 Dyddiad Ymuno: 07/12/2011 Bostiadau diweddar

Hans Bray:

As a 2 tier county council (there are 21 of us) we spend less - Surrey CCs rounded up average spend for the last few years (exc covid year) is about £14k pa

Can I check what this means? Does it mean that 21 of you spend £14k/ea on average (=£294k) or that the county council by itself spends £14k? (or something else I have recently returned from holiday and I'm not sure my brain is working yet)

Hans Bray, Addaswyd 6 Diwrnod yn ôl.

RE: Press Ad savings - Use QR code?

Enthusiast Postiadau: 41 Dyddiad Ymuno: 23/09/2019 Bostiadau diweddar

Richard Crawley:

Hans Bray:

As a 2 tier county council (there are 21 of us) we spend less - Surrey CCs rounded up average spend for the last few years (exc covid year) is about £14k pa

Can I check what this means? Does it mean that 21 of you spend £14k/ea on average (=£294k) or that the county council by itself spends £14k? (or something else I have recently returned from holiday and I'm not sure my brain is working yet)

Sorry, Richard. Yes, £14k is just what Surrey CC spend, I don't know how that compares to other CPAs but if you're just doing a rough and ready estimate then adding the £294k on top of what you estimate for Districts totals is what I meant. Unitaries I guess would be different again...

I also just thought this is just what we spend on planning application publicity - as the County Highways Authority Surrey CC have to advertise a lot of road information too, I have no idea how much that would be or if you're interested in including that?

Hans

Alastair Nicholson, Addaswyd 6 Diwrnod yn ôl.

RE: Press Ad savings - Use QR code?

New Member Postiadau: 8 Dyddiad Ymuno: 19/10/2011 Bostiadau diweddar

Richard,

Buckinghamshire Council spent 2022-2023 = £165,257.

We then all harmonised our legacy contracts and reformatted the adverts and for 2023-2024 = £110,295.

Regards,

Alastair Nicholson

Planning Business & Improvement Manager

paul lewin, Addaswyd 2 Diwrnod yn ôl.

RE: Press Ad savings - Use QR code?

New Member Postiadau: 9 Dyddiad Ymuno: 06/04/2020 Bostiadau diweddar

Hi Richard

For Brent its about £25-30K on application notices and £2K on article 4/Conservation Area boundary amendments.

Regards

Paul