Interviewer: These are all the comments we have. I think we have around 120, but the data’s a bit messy as something went wrong with the app. So this person said “this place needs to be improved for families by cleaning”, “I think the [somewhere] pool needs cleaning”, and every comment has a location associated with it. #00:00:27-7# 

Interviewer: This wouldn’t be the interface you were given as a planner - it would be much prettier, but this is a probe into the area to see if it’s something worth exploring. So I don’t know if you want to flick through them and we can have a quick discussion. #00:00:57-4# 

Participant:  Forgive me, when I read your paper, I was interested to read that when one of the guys said that “when I pass the Dome, [somewhere], and suddenly it pops up”, so how is that put in, or is that fed in by the authority? #00:01:25-6# 

Interviewer: Yeah, so I did the SNP with [someone], and we were looking at ways of modernising SNs, so we artciaully created some areas that were going to change - and a lot of them were concentrated around the [somewhere] seafront, so, as well as being able to open the app and leave a comment anywhere, you’d receive a notification saying that the place was changing, and asking what you’d like to see.  #00:01:46-4# 

Participant: I see. I see.  #00:01:50-1# 

Interviewer: So you were around [somewhere] you’d see a few, but they’re mostly around [somewhere]. So that’s what they were talking about when they’re talking about the notification on their phone. #00:02:04-7# 

[Not relevant] #00:02:35-6# 

Interviewer: So in the comments you’ll see people reporting problems, like flytipping, which isn’t useful for planning at all, and then there’s comments like [somewhere] pool being modernised might hint towards something that could be addressed, but, whether, for my experience, I don’t think a county-wide policy in the core strategy would be useful in addressing comments for regeneration. #00:03:00-9# 

Participant: Well, it’s one of those things isn’t it. You almost, when you’ve got something that’s almost activated by the authority to say there’s something happening here, you can see how that application might be rolled out - I haven’t bought it with me, but we’ve got the big policies map, so if someone’s walking past it it’s like, “there a proposal here” or whatever, so, it kind of triggers that. The other way, that when it comes into the authority, all the comments are being made, you almost need, there has to be that filtering element doesn’t it? It terms of, well actually, that is a genuine planning issue that we need to take into account, or as you say, it’s more of a call for service, like fly tipping or the street light’s out of order, that kind of thing. #00:04:03-9# 

Interviewer: I guess idealy, what a local authority would like would be to have a unified platform way for someone to report problems, or talk about place, and then a technology sorting out what’s what. And so you get planning comments, environmental health get fly-tipping, and then people don’t have to say, when they’re commenting on a planning application, “we don’t need another Tesco” - that’d be sent to licensing or something. #00:04:31-0# 

Participant: Yep. Yep. #00:04:35-1# 

Interviewer: So I mean that’s an obviously one that the platform doesn’t do anything like that. #00:04:39-9# 

Participant: But that’s no to say there isn’t a solution to it - you know, as you say, technology has come on, certainly since the 1990s, and I know a number of authorities, you’ll have to forgive me, as I don’t know whether [somewhere] is the same, but, I know a number of authorities are quite advanced in terms of they’ve got interactive maps where you know, for example, on their website, 

Some notes:

10:30: “I think one of the things that spring to my mind was, you had that ability for people to provide more information, but I’m just wondering if there was the facility to say, for the respondent, “where can I get more information, how can I get more information?”, so, for example, if we are using it from a local planning perspective, if we’re doing it as a consultation around that, they pass somewhere of interest and their phone beeps, I think you can use it in a more targeted way in being site specific, saying “there is a proposal here, or we are suggesting we build homes on this site, what are your views?”. T

“We couldn’t rely on these as genuine comments. What we would need is the contact details, we’d need that direct link, and we’re time-limited in terms of the consultation length, so somehow their would need to be that validation role so that we can accept them. All the comments that are made, they go off for examination, they go off to the inspector, and it might be that if people are genuinely interested and they want o object, the only way they could get to examination and get a foot at the table would be to have their comments formally registered. It would need to be refined in finer detail to the particular policies or proposals they are objecting to, but I don’t necessarily see that as being a difficult exercise”

People get involved too late in the process. From our perspective, it’s looking at how we can use this technology at the earliest possible juncture to provide some real value to it.

If you can, through this app, put markers on these areas, where the proposals are, where the green spaces are, so somehow it triggers. There must be a way, to sift whether that pings up, saying “this is what we propose, do you agree”, and then you can sift through with a series of multiple choice questions.

Turn layers on and off
Type in postcode and see the policies that effect him

Speed at which planning applications work - development management not too bad, but local planning is slow. Speed of getting things out.

“We also need to be careful of the expectations - that we want to get information out quickly; people will naturally assume that our way of dealing with it is as rapid - it’s that approach where it’s a case of raising that exception that we can deal with it just as quick. As I say, the whole business with technology, it’s great, but you know, people will basically demand a response there and then, and unfortunately, with making them up, it’s not that easy. Sometimes it’s a case of “yep - that’s fine, that’s good information, we can build it in” but depending on the stage of the process sometimes it can take months, a few months, for a comment to be dealt with to say “this is what we’ve done with your comment”, so it’s probably about an education role about how the process works and not unduly raising those exception levels.