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Bristol accreditation scheme for architects and agents9th April 2012

A new initiative in the council’s planning department is likely to prove attractive to architects and agents who serve the Bristol householder development market.

Getting a planning application right first time every time through to validation stage will lead to accreditation and fast tracked decisions.

Agents are invited to join the scheme and those who sign up must submit three consecutive ‘right first time’ applications to win accreditation. They would also agree to meet a code of practice.

Once accredited, applications by these agents would then receive preferential treatment, such as :

Bypassing the usual validation process
A guaranteed time to reach the case officer’s desk
A commitment to try and achieve a quicker decision - six weeks rather than eight.

Agents will also benefit by being able to market their accredited status, and with a list of accredited agents being published on our web site. The scheme is limited for the time being to householder applications.

Validation can be a time consuming task, and monitoring has shown that over the course of a year the council will send out around 1800 letters asking for further information or clarification on what has been submitted. If the number can be reduced, there will be savings of officer time and costs to the Council.

Accreditation schemes running elsewhere in the country have shown:

A dramatic improvement in the quality of applications
More efficient processing of applications
Better quality applications often resulting in fewer applications going to appeal, so saving time, effort and money

Councillor Anthony Negus, Executive Member for Housing, Property Services and Regeneration, said: “It’s all about doing better business, and it’s one of those schemes which works well for everybody. As an authority, we save council tax payers’ money when we aren’t wasting time processing poorly filled out applications, so we are happy to offer accreditation and faster decisions for those who do it well. It is also helpful to the householder, who will be able to refer to an accredited list and reduce the risk of additional costs.”
 

For further information visit: http://www.bristol.gov.uk/page/Planning-agents-accreditation-scheme


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