Tuesday 6 January 2009

It's good to talk

Had a great meeting this morning with the head of development control at the council, and a gentleman who runs a small charitable organisation in Farnham, helping the lonely elderly. It's purpose was to determine whether a planning application was required for change of use for some premises to which the organisation wished to move.

And it was great. I can't always say that about planning meetings / conversations, but this one was good. It was excellent to openly discuss the details of the intended activities, and to get open and simply worded feedback. Planning can be an intimidating process, and so to have such a face-to-face meeting, putting a personal touch into the process, and removing some of the fear and trepidation of a faceless bureacracy, was a good thing.

I write this as it was an early and encouraging example of the new planning advice process Waverley has put in place from 1st January. A much more robust and open pre-application process, hopefully leading to more accurate and complete applications, and a higher expectation of the outcome being swift and appropriate.

Watch this space for further news on performance on these pre-application measures. But for now, it's looking good.

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