Envision members have acted as interim managers and have provided diagnostic assessments, advice and support on the management of the development control and LDF processes. Key clients include Blackpool Council; Barnsley Council; Cherwell District Council; Wyre Borough Council; DCLG/ Planning Advisory Service (via Addison Associates).
Examples of the type and scope of work undertaken are illustrated below:

Keith Reed was appointed as Interim LDF Lead in order to set out the way forward for a policy framework for the newly established National Park. This included: developing a work programme for the Park’s Core Strategy, liaising closely with consultation and technical work for National Park Management Plan; drafting the Local development Scheme and Statement of Community Involvement; initiating work on the LDF evidence base; identifying and filling resource gaps; allocating staff responsibilities and targets; and team building.
He developed detailed protocols for joint LDF working with two district councils and developed proposals for Interim Policy Statements for the Park. Other work included: appointing and managing consultants to prepare a strategic plan for Petersfield, as a potential basis for a Neighbourhood Plan; commenting on adjoining and overlapping LDF documents; and input to work on proposals for the redevelopment of two major developed sites within the Park (King Edward VII Hospital and Syngenta).

Keith Reed, in his role as an Associate of Addisons, has carried out diagnostic assessments of the development management process in local planning authorities that were failing to meet the Best Value Performance Indicator targets for speed of processing planning applications, especially in relation to major applications, and in authorities where DCLG identified a need to provide support for the LDF process. These involved an in-depth evaluation of the service, including interviewing key officers, Councillors and stakeholders, writing a report of the findings and recommending actions, including areas for support by PAS. Reviews of development control performance were done for Warrington, Stoke, West Somerset, North Wiltshire, Braintree, Selby, Cherwell, Copeland and Fylde councils. Reviews of the LDF/MWDF process and performance were undertaken for Derbyshire, Amber Valley, Preston/Chorley/South Ribble, and Ellesmere Port councils

Keith Keeley, acting as Interim Planning Regeneration Manager, provided consultant management services leading a new Neighbourhood Planning Team. Over an 18 Month period he led the team in the initial stages of preparation of separate Area Action Plans for the three priority Inner Resort Neighbourhoods of Foxhall, North Beach and South Beach. All of these areas are undergoing rapid structural economic and social changes as a result of the decline in long stay tourism in the resort. The objective of the AAPs was to set out deliverable strategies for creating new sustainable neighbourhoods at the heart of the resort.

The AAPs were originally progressed through the formal planning process to preferred options stage. However, responding to the changing national economic climate, which meant that anticipated large scale public-led intervention was unrealistic, the team has developed alternative, flexible Neighbourhood Plans in the form of Supplementary Planning Documents. In view of the current economic conditions the Neighbourhood Plans are intended to:

The Neighbourhood Plans build on extensive high profile community consultation and engagement with an emphasis on making documents and proposals as accessible and understandable as possible.

Rob Shipway is advisor to the 11 Hertfordshire authorities (including Hertfordshire County Council) on potential changes to the operation of planning services in the county in the light of new circumstances covering both reductions in local authority budgets and the Coalition Government’s changes to the planning system including the emergence of localism. In essence this has involved a matrix led approach to reviewing the services provided to relate the complexities of change to both the opportunities presented by restructuring and the attitudes and aspirations of the local authorities concerned. Rob has presented his initial findings in the form of a series of options detailing a range of collaborative approaches and partnerships.