Planning Application Adjoining Owner / Occupier Notification Letters - Public forum - Planning Advisory Service (PAS)

I have been looking at this due to the considerable cost savings. My proposal to use solely site notices was declined politically due to the impending elections! I hope to pursue it in June I believe that Aylesbury Vale and Bournemeouth have taken the jump

I'm sure it would save a considerable amount but it depends on the value attached to neighbour consultation. My perception is that while site notices might fulfill publicity requirements they rarely perform a publicity function. How many public comments received mention having seen a site notice compared to those that refer to having received a letter? Much better to continue to lobby government to abolish requirements for press notices which are disproportinately expensive and maybe ask Case Officers to deliver neighbour letters where there are only one or two ? Who posts the site notices anyway ?

Thanks for the comments - David I'm completely with you on the value point and dropping press ads, however we send out tens of thousands of neighbour notification letters a year. You can probably imagine the cost, especially as we have just been informed that second class post is rising by 4p. I expect that our Members would not be interested in just site notices, but it is something we need to look at given the cuts we are facing. I really wanted to find out if others had considered this approach or were already doing it, given that the law allows it.

Two points on this... first is that a site notice in front of the house will not alert a neighbour who backs on to the property... unless they walk the dog around the block every nicht... with a torch so they can read it.... Second is that with self setting of fees next year, the cost of sending the letters will fall on the applicant to pay... make sure you add these costs in to your evaluation... members can then choose a service level with letters or without... it may save a fiver per householder app...

I agree that site notices can never properly replace neighbour letters and newspapar adverts are a waste of money. I can also see the benefit of council's setting their own fees if it allows them to pass on the cost of publicity - that will need clearly defined parameters for all publicity to ensure applicants are consistently treated (and, who pays if there's an admin error and publicity has to be done again? - what happens when new publicity is thought necessary for amendments, when sought by the council or by the applicant? - I have many more questions on this so I think I'll post a new thread!). Getting back to the general publicity angle, what about using Facebook and other social sites? - that would engage a whole new audience in the planning process, both for applications and policy consultations.

Cost computation (the short version) If you need to figure the actual cost of a letter used in consultation; Cost of paper used per average letter, plus 5% for wastage (stuff that goes in the bin) Cost of the ink/toner used, plus 5% wastage Cost of postage Cost of the envelope Cost of staff time to (a) create & print the letter, and stuff it in the envelope, (b) cost of the post room person (apportioned) for collecting and sending the letter (remembering to use "ON COST") Maint and Replacement cost of the printers (figure a 3 year write off period) Storage cost of the file copies (and yes EDMS still has a storage cost, it just a lot lower than paper storage) Alternatively you could just use a generic number like £1.50, your in house IT department BA and Project Managers should know what the ball park numbers are for your council.

This has been a recurring theme for a decade and is probably going to get even more popular now. I think I'd probably recommend starting from the other end of the puzzle. Something like this: - consultation is mostly pointless, but not always - do we acknowledge when consultation creates value ? [i.e. we capture the response as "special"] - can we split out how much money we spend on each consultation channel ? - then it is a simple(ish) sum to work out which spend creates most value. You can then concentrate on making it better / cheaper still, and seek consensus on dumping the other channels You may want a more nuanced approach, which factors in things like risk and harm, but this is broadly the issue isn't it ? It's the other side of the "how should I spend my advertising budget" question that doesn't have an answer, just a process. And it all hangs on being able to acknowledge the occasional value of consultation. I have a feeling that might be a can of worms - much more contentious than counting new customers.