Minister: Faster Planning Applications Processing
The Minister of Environment, Planning and Infrastructure Strategy Marc Bean commended the Department of Planning following a recent performance appraisal of the Department.
The report included data which reveals improved processing times for various categories of Planning applications, a statement from Government said.
The statement continued: “During the period 2010-2011, the Department received 628 planning applications and 422 applications for revisions. On average, the processing time was 13.6 weeks for planning applications and 33% of the applications were determined in a 12 week period.
“However, during 2011-2012, the Department registered 624 planning applications and 376 applications for revisions. The average processing time for planning applications was 12.6 weeks with 45% of the applications determined within a 12 week period. The Department’s target is to process 55% of planning applications within 12 weeks.
“Likewise, during the financial year 2010- 2011, the Department received 853 building permit applications. During this period, 502 permits were issued and these were processed in 7.3 weeks on average. During 2011- 2012, the Department received 775 building permit applications and average processing time was 5.9 weeks.
“Additionally, the average response time to building and electrical inspection requests was 0.9 days in 2010-2011 with 90% of those requests met within one day and 96% completed within three days. In 2011-2012, the average response time was 0.5 days, some 94% of site inspection requests were satisfied within one day and 98% within three days.
“The data indicates a continuing improving trend in the processing of planning applications as average processing time has improved annually over recent years,” said Director of Planning Trevor Leach. “In particular, the percentage of applications processed within an eight and twelve week period has shown steady improvement.”
“The review of the performance statistics indicate a continuing trend with average processing times for the various categories of applications and permits being reduced over time,” said Mr. Leach. “During 2011-2012, the Department continued to focus on the improvement in its service delivery, particularly in the processing of planning applications and building permits.
“The ‘Fast track’ system of straightforward applications continued ensuring that those minor applications, which are fully compliant, are resolved speedily. In addition, any applications which are of particular importance for the well-being of the island, such as tourism or infrastructure projects, are given priority attention.
“Furthermore, a review and update of internal procedures has continued in order to streamline administrative processes and improve application turnaround times.”
“The two major applications determined during the year 2011-2012 were the new power station for Bermuda Electric Light Company (BELCO) and the Park Hyatt Tourism/ Residential project. Both applications involved a significant amount of senior officer and case officer time. Given the high priority of both applications to the island’s economy, both applications were determined speedily with the Park Hyatt application being resolved within nine weeks.”
Minister Bean said: “I would like to extend my congratulations to the staff of the Department of Planning who have worked diligently to ensure faster processing times for planning applications. The proof is in the pudding and I think these results speak for themselves.
“It is important to note that further improvements can be expected as the Department makes the necessary strides to put the various systems in place to not only improve performance but also to measure output across its various activities and services.”
Well done planning department, keep up the good work. Now Bean, where is your work, i.e. the decision on Zane at Devonsire (6 months in the making).
Right. That is the only issue in his department that matters to most people. Here is something else. If these figures are correct, where are the lenghty delays which builders are using as an excuse to make retroactive planning applications?
People have less money, less houses being built, less applications going to planning…quicker speed of movement on those few applications that are before the board. And someone (Marc Ban) is giving kudos for this!? UNBELIEVABLE! If anything they should downsize the Dept. because there is less of a workload. It’s not rocket science people. PLP SPIN, SPIN, SPIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Yes, why is that taking so long?
Is Bean conniving another plan with Zane so that Zane gets what he wants?
Or maybe he will just let this drag on. After all, he will be replaced by the next Environment Minister within the next 3 or 4 months.
This just amazes me! Why does Mr Bean speed up his own process and make a decision on whats on his plate concerning Furbert/Desilva fiasco. Oh I forgot he’s a minister – rules and regulations don’t refer to PLP ministers!
Do as you like until your voted out PLP! Can’t wait.
@Cancer:
Unless the OBA does something dramatic in the next few months, I do not believe they will be successful at the polls in the next general election. Just being honest here. I have said it enough now but apparently they don’t want to understand the reality of the situation. The reality is that the OBA has not engaged the young Black vote to persuade them to vote OBA – they have just gotten them angry at the PLP and the political process. That equals to those individuals to either vote for the PLP or not vote at all – both of which signal doom for the OBA.
FACT: THE PLP DOES NOT NEED THE WHITE VOTE TO CONTINUE AS THE GOVT. THE OBA NEEDS A LARGE % OF THE BLACK VOTE TO WIN THE GOVT – plain and simple.
They have not done the work to gain that needed % – so let the chips fall where they may. I get tired of pointing out the obvious to the PLP/Govt haters out there – - stop screaming your anger on the blogs and go out and drum up some support for the political party you suppport – they both need it – PLP, OBA, and UBP.
Yng Black Mind
(those who know understand)
But, Yng Black Mind, I’m sure you agree that inside special deals between government ministers are unacceptable. Ministers are supoposed to be there to serve the country, not to enrich themselves with deals that would be unavailable to anyone else. Minister Bean should resolve the issue right away, by confirming the original planning dept refusals for the DeSilva and Furbert planning applications.
You would agree with that, right?
I think the PLP have got everyone angry at the PLP
My friend, it is the black middle class that decides elections. The PLP has done much to piss them off through scandal after scandal. I think you’re right, in that the OBA haven’t gone far enough to court the young black vote but the PLP has done significant damage to their electability amongst the Black middle class. That will work in the OBAs favor. I will not be supporting the PLP and neither are any of my friends and we are all black middle class who formerly supported them.
If enough young blacks don’t turn out to vote (as is the disturbing trend), we could see a change in Govt.
Right to the point. Many of us are saying we are not going to vote for PLP because were mad, but we don’t care to vote for the OBA because they are the UBP with a name change.
I don’t see a problem in someone exercising their right not to vote. Politicians want to make you feel guilty about not voting because guess what THEY NEED YOUR VOTE. It’s a gimmick nowadays. Of course people fought hard for women and blacks and Portuguese to vote and all that. But now its to the point were all the politician cares about is your vote. Imagine for a moment if everyone boycotted their vote, do you think we would get what we wanted as citizens? Do you think they would drag their feet on transparency? Do you think we could get more referendums for controversial legislation such as SDOs? YOU BET YOUR BOOTS WE WOULD! MY personal opinion is that IF a large amount of groups/people threatened to boycott their votes, we would be able to get the changes we need such as the way the party system and government is set up in general. For starters, we have a ridiculous amount of politicians for a 21 sq mile island making a paycheck. We don’t need that many as the civil service/consultants do all the work anyways.
Two data points doesn’t make a trend. I would like to see monthly historical data for the last 10 years.
Yng black mind – constructive critisim which you’ve given is always appreciated!
Why is the speedy approval of these applications considered a good thing? All this seems to be to me is a case of hypocrisy & putting the cart before the horse. We have reports of visitor numbers not being enough to fill current accommodations but there’s cheers for the approval of building more lodging for the visitors we don’t have. We also have reports from BELCO that after the IB exodus they are struggling with less payments due to less residents but they apply for a new power station. The biggest hypocrisy of all is our Minister of ENVIRONMENT is claiming victory for the hasty approval of more development of our already over developed island. The reason for the over development of Bermuda is the assembly line building in the past years. We have many derelict buildings here but nothing seems to be done about this. The irony I see daily with these derelict or worn down locations is that when I pass them there are people going inside them but none of these people look like they reside in these buildings. HMMMMM! I wonder what thats all about?!?!?! I guess I’ll save that one for another article that will be reported on though I wish those didn’t happen so there wouldn’t be a need for those articles. Getting back to our Minister of ENVIRONMENT! Does Marc Bean have a crystal ball that tells him we will need these new developments or is he just trying to keep the income flowing of one of his minister buddies? For a while I’ve been on the fence with what my vote will be in the next election but I’m slowly climbing down to the milk mans side especially now since the milk man surely values green land for his cows & surely knows that he needs to know how much milk will be produced before getting cartons ready to be filled so he doesn’t have an excess of cartons.
faster except Bean
Umum, don’t we get this ‘fast track’ nonsense before every election? No-one’s building anyway.
Where you’ve been Joe there’s plenty building going on! I don’t know what crane I see more of in Bermuda now the bird or the machine. Now if you were to say not many construction companies are getting contracts for building now in Bermuda that be more to the truth. Thats another story & it has nothing to do with no one building but who’s getting the contracts for building. For the answer to that take a tour around & when you see a construction site take note of the logos on the vehicles there. I’m sure you’ll find that the logos rarely change from one site to the next.