Haringey's Slow Online Planning System Disengaging Public, say Lib Dems

7.37.00pm GMT Tue 4th Oct 2005

Lib Dem councillor for Highgate Bob Hare has called on the Council to review its online planning system after residents complained that it was taking them hours to review planning applications.

The concerns have been raised by residents about the usability of the online service both in public at the last planning committee meeting and to Bob Hare directly.

Cllr Hare investigated these complaints by attempting to access a current planning application which comprises 52 pages, all on PDF files online.

During an afternoon it took between 4 and 6 minutes to download each page using a broadband connection. With 52 pages of information, just obtaining all the details for this application could take nearly five hours, let alone read them.

This slow delivery means that even from the west of Cllr Hare's ward of Highgate, on the most westerly edge of Haringey, it would be quicker to walk to the planning office in Tottenham in the east of the borough, where you would have time to look at the plans, do some shopping, have a coffee and walk back.

Cllr Hare, who is a Lib Dem member of the Council's Planning Committee said:

"Haringey's online planning system is an excellent development, and could be really helpful. Unfortunately, it is very slow, which seriously reduces its usability for larger applications. Given that these are the very ones which will be of greatest public interest and concern, and with the greatest number of people wanting to see the details, this is a serious problem.

"The Council's planning service should be applying pressure on the company providing the present service to speed up the delivery rate of information, as well as considering its longer-term strategy for planning information."