{"id":1864,"date":"2010-10-08T16:21:08","date_gmt":"2010-10-08T16:21:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ihbconline.co.uk\/newsachive\/?p=1864"},"modified":"2010-10-08T16:21:08","modified_gmt":"2010-10-08T16:21:08","slug":"caution-urged-on-planning-mergers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/?p=1864","title":{"rendered":"Caution urged on planning mergers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span><strong><br \/>\n<\/strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Proposals to merge planning departments have been met with enthusiasm by consultants but with scepticism by officers.<br \/>\n<\/span><br \/>\nSpeaking at the Conservative Party conference this week, communities  secretary Eric Pickles told delegates that councils should share  services and work across boundaries to drive down costs. \u00a0He asked: &#8220;Is  it really necessary for councils to have separate education or planning  departments or, heaven forbid, separate press offices?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Adur District Council and Worthing Borough Council share a chief  executive as well as senior management and have worked closely on their  core strategies. \u00a0Bromsgrove District and Redditch Borough Councils have  a joint head of planning and regeneration. South Oxfordshire and Vale  of White Horse District Councils also share a planning service head.<\/p>\n<p>Colin Buchanan director of planning and urban design Hugh Roberts said:  &#8220;This would be positive should it be allowed to assist fast-track  development decisions.&#8221; He added: &#8220;With local enterprise partnerships  now emerging across borough and county boundaries, the combining of  certain planning authority functions can only enhance an impression to  the private investor community that local parochialism is becoming  subsidiary to business interests for areas defined beyond town or  city-regions.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Indigo Planning chairman Simon Neate agreed: &#8220;More joined-up and  simplified working across planning departments is to be welcomed as long  as it doesn&#8217;t harm the quality and speed of decision-making. A major  question, however, is how this approach would sit with the wider  localism agenda.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>But Planning Officers Society spokesman John Silvester has urged  caution: &#8220;We recognise the imperative to reduce costs and yet retain  effective public services. The society is preparing a range of good  practice guidance, including information about shared services.&#8221;<br \/>\n<a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"http:\/\/www.planningresource.co.uk\/news\/login\/1033298\/\" target=\"_blank\"><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Search Planning Portal: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.planningportal.gov.uk\/england\/professionals\/news\/archive\/2010\/oct10\/2010_10_week_1\/071010_7\" target=\"_blank\">LINK<\/a><\/p>\n<p><span>Planning Resource News: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.planningresource.co.uk\/news\/login\/1033298\/\" target=\"_blank\">LINK<\/a><br \/>\n<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Proposals to merge planning departments have been met with enthusiasm by consultants but with scepticism by officers. Speaking at the Conservative Party conference this week, communities secretary Eric Pickles told delegates that councils should share services and work across boundaries &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/?p=1864\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1864","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sector-newsblog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1864","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1864"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1864\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1866,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1864\/revisions\/1866"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1864"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1864"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1864"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}