As previously advised there are IT issues that are affecting a number of Council services including the ability for Councillors and the public to consistently view planning applications through the Council’s Public Access system.
Residents and Councillors can continue to make comments by emailing the [email protected] email address. Councillors can also make referrals on applications they may not be able to currently view, with an ability to withdraw that referral later, if the referral is no longer considered necessary.
Planning applications have a statutory 21 day notification period, following which the Local Planning Authority can determine the application. However, planning officers always consider representations right up until the point of determination of an application and in practice it is rare that an application is determined immediately after the expiry of the 21 day period.
During this period of disruption and in order that residents, Councillors and the wider public continue to benefit from the full 21 day statutory notification period, all planning applications to be determined will be checked to ensure that the expiry period does not fall within this period of IT disruption and for any that does, additional time will be allowed on those applications to enable responses to be made once the IT issues are resolved.
The Council’s IT team is working hard to investigate and resolve the problem. It is believed that the issue has now been narrowed down to the Microsoft Azure cloud services and the team is working with Microsoft to address the issue.
