Planning applications: Find out what is happening in your area

Chamber members Brighton & Hove Independent are working in partnership with Brighton & Hove City Council to make it easier for people to find out about planning applications in their area. Greg Hadfield, Editorial Director of Brighton & Hove Independent, tells us all about the pilot project below.

Nobody knows for certain. Not least, the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG). 

In Whitehall, the best estimate is that there are more than 600 types of statutory notices - notices that have to be formally advertised. Usually in print, in a newspaper.

That's because most of the legislation about statutory notices - planning applications, licensing applications, bankruptcy notices, traffic regulation orders, and so on - was framed in the pre-internet, pre-web, pre-digital era.

All that is about to change. Thanks to a DCLG initiative entitled Statutory Notices for the 21st Century, involving grants totalling nearly £1 million for 24 pilot projects - including one project being undertaken by Brighton & Hove Independent, in partnership with Brighton & Hove City Council.

Some of the pilot projects involve the use of "plain English" (always to be welcomed); some involve QR codes (which have never really taken off); some involve apps (if you have an iPhone, or one on the Android platform).

In Brighton and Hove, the pilot - which has only recently gone live - focuses on the mapping of planning applications, combined with email alerts and the use of social media (such as Twitter and Facebook).

You will, of course, still be able to screw up your eyes and scrutinise the plasticised A4 notices tied by string to lampposts or railings. You may perhaps visit the Brighton and Hove City Council website and navigate your way to the online planning register.

You may, however, prefer now to start with a visit to the Brighton & Hove Independent website and enter your address or postcode to see what is happening in your neighbourhood.

Moreover, you can also sign up for an email alert to let you know whenever a planning application is made in your area. Alternatively, you can also browse planning applications by ward and by conservation area - or by type of application.

Work on the pilot project - which runs until the end of August - is almost complete. Although significant additions and improvements will be made later this month.

Even then, however, it will only be a test version.

Brighton & Hove Independent wants to hear from you about what you think, what you want, and what more you want them to do.

Most of all, the newspaper - recently bought by Johnston Press, the national media group - wants you to complete an online questionnaire.

This is what the Brighton and Hove pilot offers. You can:

Read the latest planning applications

Hundreds of planning applications are submitted every month. Some have to be advertised locally: those affecting listed buildings or in one of the city’s 34 conservation areas, and those regarded as major projects. From today, you can simply enter your address or postcode to find the applications in any part of Brighton and Hove. You can also browse applications in each conservation area or in each of the 21 wards in the city. You can also browse by type of application.

Sign up for a planning alert

For the first time, you can now sign up to receive an email whenever there is a planning application in the area where you live – or in an area in which you are particularly interested. From today, you can choose the ward or wards in which you are particularly interested; if you are not sure which ward you live in, all you have to do is enter your postcode. In future, you will be able to sign up to email alerts for specific conservation areas.

Win a £250 Amazon voucher

There is much more to be done. First, though, we need to know what you want to know - and how you want to be informed. Importantly, we are also interested in other statutory notices, such as traffic regulation orders and road closures, or bankruptcy notices and licensing applications. We are asking you to take a few minutes to complete the questionnaire here. If you do, your name will be entered in a prize draw - with the chance of winning a £250 Amazon voucher. 

If you want to contribute to the Chamber blog, contact us on hannah@brightonchamber.co.uk