SALFORD CITY COUNCIL IS CELEBRATING A DOUBLE SUCCESS AFTER WINNING TWO TOP AWARDS.

The council has been named Planning Authority of the Year by the North West branch of the Royal Town Planning Institute and joint winner of Best in the North West region with planning consultancy Barton Willmore,  now Stantec, for delivering Europe's largest garden project, the RHS Garden Bridgewater.

Judges praised the planning department as 'outstanding' and said it:

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"proactively delivers an all-round excellent and efficient local authority planning service. The sheer range of initiatives they are taking across their teams is phenomenal.

"There is a clear demonstration of team working and going above and beyond, putting in extra time to improve the service for customers. They are at the cutting edge of forward thinking and are beacon of success to inspire other authorities both within and outside the region."

 

The award was assessed on client satisfaction, the ability of planners to manage multi-disciplinary projects, ability to develop imaginative approaches to achieve

high quality planning solutions, commitment to equality, diversity and inclusivity and to staff development and business improvement.

Judges praised how the team:

Coped successfully with the challenges of bringing development management staff back in house from a 15-year private-public joint venture service just as the pandemic sent Britain into lockdown

Managed a 19 per cent increase in workload over the past year to determine 97 per cent of planning applications or enquiries in a timely manner; last year Salford received 75 major applications and approved 2,423 new homes.

Helped Salford City Council be assessed as a  leading value for money planning authority in a benchmarking club led by the Planning Advisory Service in 2021

Used artificial intelligence to automate the validation of some of the 2000 planning applications received each year to speed up the process

Maintained the planning process during the pandemic by using technology to run meetings and enhance the service

Re-launched their pre-application service to offer a more bespoke offering and to work with developers to ensure high quality planning applications are progressed smoothly and quickly; Salford's 12 storey Eden office building will now have Europe's biggest 'living' wall with plants replacing a blank façade and was able to start on site within 13 months of applying for planning permission thanks to joint work between planners and developers

Split the Local Plan in two rather than pause the whole process following delays to the approval of a Greater Manchester development plan

Embedded social value into the Local Plan to make sure that developers demonstrate how local people will benefit from jobs, apprenticeships, work placements and support during their development, commit to using local businesses and suppliers and consider use of space to benefit local communities and projects and cultural activities and events when planning schemes in Salford.

Councillor Mike McCusker, lead member for planning and sustainable development said:

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"Salford has seen huge investment in a wide range of new homes, businesses infrastructure to manage that growth and public spaces over the last decade and has developed a Local Plan to manage more of the same over the next 20 years.

"Over 50 acres of land alone has been transformed in Salford Central and the Crescent, generating more than £900 million of investment and creating economic opportunities for local residents. Salford Quays has continued to expand and will double in size in time and we have brought England's fifth national garden RHS Garden Bridgewater to our city.

"None of this incredible change could have happened without the hard work of our planning department which has to ensure every aspect of the project, from highways to design is considered and meets all required standards before planning permission can even be granted.

"We were absolutely delighted to win the Local Planning Authority of the Year Award but to be awarded the Best in Region amongst great company was truly fantastic. The whole team should be rightly proud of its achievements and clearly shows what can be done when colleagues, council members, communities and partners work together. This gives us a great boost and platform to do things even better for the people of Salford."