Credit: Crown copyright/Open Government Licence v3.0

The Planning Inspectorate is building a new online appeals service. 

The digital platform, which will be piloted later this month, will replace the incumbent Appeals Casework Portal.

The new service (pictured above) will allow companies to create accounts for use by their entire organisation, meaning “multiple people can access and work on cases”, the government said. The incoming system will also allow users to track appeals in train and access documents online, as well as issuing reminders of upcoming deadlines. Moreover, the Planning Inspectorate claimed that submitting appeals, questionnaires, and other information will be easier for businesses, citizens, and local authorities.

Trials of the new platform – across a selection of pilot cases in East Sussex, West Sussex, and Kent – will begin toward the end of this month.

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Tom Warth, product manager at the Planning Inspectorate, said: “The new online service represents a complete redesign of the way we receive appeals and how users interact with us. A key goal for the new portal is to ensure the appeals we receive are valid on submission thereby reducing the number of incomplete cases we currently handle that require valuable time and effort to resolve.”

He added: “We have designed the new portal so that we receive a valid appeal every time and to ensure the service is simple to use. We’ve worked in close collaboration with users and the Government Digital Service to ensure the service meets the highest standards across government.”

The inspectorate works with appeals related to local planning-permission decisions for both buildings and larger infrastructure projects. Operating as an executive agency of the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, it employs 700 staff at offices in Bristol and Cardiff, as well as a roster of about 100 freelance contractors.