Peterborough City Council's Planning and Building Control team has retained its national Customer Service Excellence Standard for a further three years.

The team is one of just 10 planning services departments in England to be awarded the standard, a recognition given by the Cabinet Office to organisations which have demonstrated a customer-focused culture and the delivery of excellent services to customers.

The standard is valid for three years but is subject to annual accreditation. The city council's Customer Services team has also held the standard for the past five years.

The awarding body met with a number of the department's customers and partners to ask how planning staff treated them in terms of speed and quality of service. They also checked to see if the service had learned from complaints and used customer feedback to make the customer experience better.

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There are five elements which must be proved in order to achieve the standard. These are customer insight - identifying customers and working with them in an effective way; organisational culture - cultivating and committing to a customer-focused culture; information and access - providing accurate and comprehensive information through the most appropriate channels; delivery - listening to customers and using feedback to provide the best possible service; and timeliness and quality of service - providing a timely, high quality service.

Councillor Lucia Serluca, chairperson of the city council's Planning and Environmental Protection Committee, said: "Retaining the standard is fantastic news for residents and property developers as they know they can be assured a great level of customer care from the council.

"This award yet again confirms our Planning and Building Control team to be amongst the country's best, an essential achievement to ensure the success of this authority's growth aspirations."

(CD/JP)