You may recall my previous rant about the Planning Portal system and not being able to issue draft applications to my Clients.

Well, they called me about this and they are genuinely trying to fix it, having a temporary system in place in the meantime. They will be producing draft documents with watermarks over them, which resolves their problem of people bypassing the planning portal system and submitting the form directly to the councils. Which was apparently happening a lot.

They are also improving their services including easier payment methods for applicants. This should be useful, as local councils have a habit of losing cheques and not being able to match the payment with the application. So we will watch this space and see if the issues get ironed out.

I am in shock that they actually listened to me and took my suggestions on board!