Planning and Building control admin merger - Public forum - Planning Advisory Service (PAS)

Did this some years ago at a previous authority. Took the route of each of the support team having an area of expertise and a secondary and then tertiary area of competence. The BC team had no will to see it succeed, feeling that they were somehow losing some resources, notwithstanding that the support team was able to provide cover during periods of absence of the main support officer. Integrated the receipt and input of applications first, which then muddied the time "their" support officer needed to spend on BC duties, freeing up some time for other things. Main thing is to have the will for it to work, from the top and right down to grass roots, and, of course, the support of the support team members as well.

Rebecca As part of transferring customer activities into our Customer Service Centre - Corporate Customer Acces Strategy, we have restructured our back office services as part of the strategy and to payback the investement in the CSC and new technology. From April 2010 we brought together adminstraive/business support functions from DC, BC (including Land Charges aspects) and Trees into a centralised team, with the CSC providing the face to face, telephone, email front line service for planning services. We are operating with reduced workforce supported by some temporary funded posts whislt we work through a transition perod and carry out training. Happy for you to give me a call next week. Paul

Sorry profile not bringing through Authority Paul Boucher Business & Information Services Manager Environment & Planning Department Cambridge City Council

Have a chat with Stevenage, they had a merged DC & BC admin team back in '05.

Morning Rebecca - the two admin team's at Sunderland merged a few weeks ago. Our enforcement team has also moved into the space left in BC to work more closely on development management. I'll copy our Office Manager in to see if she has any words of wisdom. Dave

Hi Rebecca, The two Admin team's at Gloucester merged successfully approx. march 2009. If you want to discuss any issues please give me a call on 01452 396013. Caroline

Thanks to everyone who has responded. I may be getting in touch with one or two of you who have left messages to do so. Rebecca

Rebecca, we merged our Planning and Building Control technical teams in April 2008. The implementation of the new structure has been successful and certainly timely, considering the financial pressures on service areas since. If you wish to discuss further, please feel free to contact me. Becki.

Stroud merged our DM and BC admin teams in 2005 as part of an equal pay review. Initial teething issues as staff argued over how important THEIR bit was. But all fine and dandy now. Its supprising how the merger has improved efficiencies and made both teams aware of the development team approach. Here, the Principal Business Support Officer is a member of my Management Team, and has the right to challenge her DM, BC or Planning Strategy collegues. The Admin now works for the authority's good and not the planners ot inspectors. The document management system also helps to maintain administrative discipline as every document into the service is scanned, be it a planning or B Regs application. The automation available in IDox-Uniform also hels to create a sister case without all the bother of double entry. Huge sucess, embrace it Phill

Hi Rebecca Here at Barnsley we have also merged our Building Control & Development Management teams at the same time as a downsizing exercise took place about 18 months ago. Transition was relatively smooth and I do think we benefit from having a multifunction support team although I would have liked to have seen more achieved in knowledge sharing but the reduction in resource has slowed this down. Happy to share our experience with you if you need any more information. My number is (01226) 775772. Cheers

Bolton Council Planning Division has just undergone significant Value for Money changes which include this issue - along with a reduction in staffing across the Division of 30% (25 posts out of 75). These changes have taken place within the last 6 months. Val Walsh may be able to offer some early experiences on 01204 336065.

Wigan Council has just done this and expects to be able to deliver significant savings over the next 5 years. Contact Penny McGinty on 01942 404255 for further information,.