Essential Guide to the
December 2005 PPA Website Survey

As many of you know, PPA will be carrying out a web-based survey of local authority websites shortly after the 31st December 2005, on behalf of the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister. The planning website of all local authorities in England and Wales will be surveyed against the 'Pendleton Criteria'. The criteria were designed by PPA to appraise the availability and accessibility of online development control and planning policy information on local authority websites, and have subsequently been adopted by the ODPM as one of the measures to assist in the allocation of Planning Delivery Grant Funding.

Where can I view the Pendleton Criteria?

There are different criteria for the district and county-level authorities and the national park authorities, to reflect their distinct planning roles and responsibilities. The district-level authorities are surveyed against 21 criteria, the County Councils against an adapted 21 and National Parks against 24.

PPA and the ODPM clarified the definitions of the criteria earlier in the year in response to local authority requests. The authorities were invited by the ODPM to give their views on the proposed clarifications in September 2005 before they were finalised.

The final Clarified Pendleton Criteria are all available to download 'here' at www.pendleton-assoc.com

How is the survey carried out?

PPA will survey the websites after the 31st December 2005. Each local authority website will be individually reviewed by logging onto the council homepage and navigating to the planning service page and related pages. We cannot tell you the exact time and date that your website will be surveyed.

The researcher - acting as a first-time customer - will assess the availability and accessibility of the planning services against the relevant criteria and award a point for each criteria met. Each site is surveyed at least twice at different times by different researchers.

To ensure your authority receives the points it deserves, please ensure that all planning service are up and running by the 31st December 2005 and that the information displayed is up to date.

Websites with links or services that do not function will be repeat-tested over the course of the survey period. Links that remain inoperative at the end of the survey period will not be awarded a point for the relevant criteria.

PPA will carry out all reasonable checks to locate planning services and information. However, if it is not clear on the planning web pages which services are available and where they are located, PPA cannot guarantee that they will be found. It is the responsibility of the local authority to ensure that planning information and services are easily accessible to the customer.

Links to external sites that offer planning services on behalf of the local authority (e.g. advice and guidance, online application submissions, electronic development plans etc) will be included in the scoring for that authority only where there is a functioning link from the Council website to the external site accompanied by a brief explanation of the services available and how to access them. A logo of the external site alone is not sufficient.

How and when will I be able to view my score?

When the surveys are completed the results will be put into tables, listing the name of each local authority, the criteria that they meet and their score. These tables will be available to view on the PPA website from the 16/01/2006. These results are not final.

We would encourage all authorities to appoint a person in advance who will be available on the 16/01/2006 to check your results and to validate them with PPA.

How do I contact PPA to validate my results?

Once a survey has taken place, local authorities are invited to validate their results online with PPA. You will be asked to confirm whether your authority has been awarded the correct criteria.

Local authorities can validate their scores between 16/01/2006 and 27/01/2006.

Any forms received after the validation period can not be considered and your score cannot be changed, so please make sure that someone from your local authority is available during this period to validate your results. Feel free to email us now on info@pendleton-assoc.com to let us know who this will be.
To make the process quicker and easier, PPA now have a special electronic validation form for local authorities to complete, which will be available on the PPA website. All responses must be submitted using this form.

If you agree with your score all you need to do is type in your contact email address, tick the 'agree' box on the form (verifying that the all the criteria awarded to your local authority are correct), then click 'submit' and confirm that you wish to send the form.

If you do not agree with your score you will be asked to provide more details in the spaces provided. Please let us know if you think you have not been awarded a point for a service that you have, or if you have been awarded a point that you shouldn't. PPA will then reassess your site against the relevant criteria and reply to you with your validated score.

Please note - we cannot award points during the validation period for new services that were not in place when the survey was carried out or for services/information that were not working or out of date at the time of testing.

Where can I view the final results?

Shortly after the validation period is completed the final results will be available on the PPA website, with an accompanying report summarising the findings for England and Wales. These results will be final and not subject to change.

Further information

The PPA website has a 'FAQ section', which answers some of the most common questions we receive from local authorities. Please check these and the definitions of the clarified criteria, if you have any queries.

If you cannot find the answer to your question or you have a question about the survey process, please email John at jh@pendleton-assoc.com. However, we cannot carry out independent surveys of your sites for you and we cannot guarantee your score or any points.

'Allocations for e-planning will be decided on the basis of performance in all authorities at the end of December 2005, so it is not possible to be specific about minimum individual allocations at this time. It is expected that the allocations will be along the lines of proposals that ODPM consulted on in July 2005, with a baseline allocation for authorities scoring 15 or more Pendleton points, and then additional bonuses for application registers, online applications and online plan capabilities.

The final decision on e-planning allocations will be taken by Ministers in March 2006 and announced as part of the second PDG allocations. For more information about PDG visit the ODPM website by clicking 'here'