Buckinghamshire scoops Planning Team of the Year award
Buckinghamshire Council’s Planning and Environment Team has been voted Local Authority Planning Team of the Year at the prestigious national Planning Awards.
The awards recognise excellence and best practice in all aspects of planning and environment, so to win the overall Team of the Year category is a significant accolade.
As one of the largest planning authorities in the country, Buckinghamshire Council manages a high volume of planning applications each year and is also the third highest performing authority for planning enforcement. The award win also takes in the ambitious work of the council’s Climate Change and Environment team and recognising the major achievements in delivering the council’s Climate Change and Air Quality strategy and the activity that falls under this including a comprehensive green transport plan and a major tree-planting initiative, the Bucks Tree Mission.
The award recognises the wide range of services provided in the Planning team which manages around 13,000 applications every year and is also responsible for Building Control and Planning Enforcement, investigating and enforcing any planning breaches.
One of the many reasons for the win is how Buckinghamshire has reshaped the service from the previous separate legacy councils planning functions to deliver a fully integrated and customer-focussed planning service. The service has a new focus on how it works with customers, removing the barrier of email replacing with phone calls to applicants and agents. This has proved very successful with a dramatic drop in chasing emails, updates and complaints.
Councillor Peter Strachan is Buckinghamshire Council’s Cabinet Member for Planning and Regeneration. He said:
“I’m so proud that our first-class planning service is getting the recognition it deserves. The work is so important, from helping residents across the county to manage their own developments, to working up an over-arching Local Plan for Buckinghamshire which will play a big part in the future development of our county.
What we’ve wanted above all is to put our residents at the heart of the planning service and to make it a better experience for them and I’m delighted that we’re clearly achieving this.”
Councillor Gareth Williams is Buckinghamshire Council’s Cabinet Member for Climate Change and Environment. He said:
“This award win also recognises the scale and ambition of our plans to tackle climate change here in Buckinghamshire – and how we are protecting and enhancing our local environment for residents. Our Climate Change and Air Quality Strategy is such an important piece of work for the council and the judges clearly recognise that; we’re planting more than half a million new trees in Buckinghamshire, one for every resident and I urge everyone living in Bucks to look up the Bucks Climate Challenge on the council’s website to see how they can get involved.”
