Customer Consultation
The council’s development control unit acknowledges the important role of enterprise and business in the West Lothian economy and recognises that the Planning function and the development control process in particular can play a crucial role in securing sustainable economic growth and prosperity. Having met with representatives of the business community we are now much
more aware of the frustrations which they have when interacting with the council’s regulatory functions and we are committed to addressing these and are striving towards achieving a more corporate and streamlined service. One of the first things we have done is to ensure that business and employment related planning applications are afforded special attention and dealt with quickly and efficiently. We are now actively managing the processing of these applications and are pleased to report that there has been a marked improvement in the percentage of applications that are determined within two months of being registered. Prior to the launching of this initiative in the summer of 2005 there had been a steadily downwards trend in processing times, largely it has to be said as a consequence of an increase in the number of planning applications being received. However with more pro-active management of these applications this decline has been arrested as the accompanying graph shows and we have recently managed to exceed our performance target of dealing with 80% of small business applications within the two month period. If you have used our service, particularly within the last 3 months, we would be pleased to hear from you. The views and suggestions of our business community are valued and can help to further improve our service to you.
Contact duty officer on 01506 775365 or email dbc@westlothian.gov.uk
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