Online planning service proves popular

People in Jersey have visited the planning applications online service thousands of times in its first year and nearly 500 users have signed up to automatically receive information about planning applications by email.

 

The Department of the Environment’s online service allows people to see full details of all planning applications in Jersey, including plans, photographs, documents, public and other comments. It allows users to submit their own comments on individual planning applications.

 

Customers can also register to automatically receive email notifications of new planning applications or new documents or comments relating to an existing application by parish, for a given area of the Island, or for a specific application.

 

 

When the service was launched in May 2012, the Department of the Environment was among the first to use the new MyGov online services portal which allows registered users to receive updates from States of Jersey departments. 

 

The service has quickly become popular and householders, architects, applicants, interest groups, and other States departments have visited the Planning Portal service 29,000 times in the last 12 months, or approximately 80 times per day. 

 

Department of the Environment Chief Executive Officer, Andrew Scate, said “Anyone who has used the online planning service sees the benefits immediately; it’s a straightforward and effective service that gives people the information they want and can deliver straight to their inbox.

 

"The other significant advantage of the improvements we’ve made is that it makes the planning process accessible and transparent to everyone – a few clicks and you can see all the documents, including comments, to any current application and you can submit your own comments to an application.”

 

You can find the online service by searching ‘planning register’ on the States website. The next stage is to enable people to submit planning applications online and this project is underway. You can still see paper copies of applications at the relevant parish hall.