South Cambridgeshire District Council began preparing their Development Plan Documents in 2004. Because of the pressures being placed on them by the Government (South Cambridgeshire is one of the Government's growth areas), they decided, uniquely, to take 6 major documents simultaneously through the new LDF process. These included the Core Strategy, Development Control Policies, Site-Specific Policies and three major Area Action Plans. To help them achieve this daunting task, they approached JDi Solutions for a software solution which would provide the mechanisms to meet their own ambitious deadlines and to satisfy government requirements for online consultations.
Over the intervening two years, this partnership has delivered a system which:
- Is rich in functionality
- Is relevant to the LDF process
- Meets all e-government standards for public consultation
- Provides quantifiable Gershon efficiency savings
During this period, our software has helped the council to process 33 document consultations over 5 stages:
| stage | representations
received | electronic |
|---|
| Preferred Options | 6772 | 41% |
| Pre-Submission | 3580 | 81% |
| Submission | 3027 | 77% |
| Objection Sites | 1216 | 57% |
| Site Allocation Policies | 2387 | 60% |
| Total | 16982 | 60% |
The Preferred Options consultation began on 1st October 2004. The Site Allocation Policies consultation ended on 28th July 2006, a total period of 22 months.
The Submission consultations ended on 17th February 2006, so it has taken just 8 months to analyse 3000 representations, compile responses and conduct the Core Strategy public examination. This would not have been possible without JDi Solutions' software.
"The quality of support we have received from JDi Solutions has been outstanding"
Keith Miles, South Cambs Planning Policy Manager
"The partnership between JDi Solutions and South Cambridgeshire's Planning Policy team has produced a system of which we can all be justifiably proud".
Jon Dean, JDi Solutions Managing Director
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