A new protocol has been agreed between Bristol City Council and local business organisations, aimed at ensuring major planning applications in the city are dealt with more efficiently and with greater community involvement.

Bristol is the engine room of the South West's economy with more and more businesses and their staff choosing the city as a base.

This popularity is reflected in the number of key planning applications submitted to the council each year. The council already deals with more than 220 major planning applications each year and, of these, 20 to 30 will be designated as ‘super major’ - complex schemes which usually involve over 100 homes, more than 10,000sq m of commercial floor space, or a mixture of the two.

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Bristol City Council has been working with Business West and Bristol Property Agents Association to develop an innovative Planning Protocol, which clearly sets out both council and developer responsibilities and sets out standards for customer service throughout the process.

The protocol was launched at an event at the Bristol Marriott Hotel, College Green and was attended by developers, property agents and the council.

Councillor Mark Bradshaw said: "Investor confidence in the city is growing rapidly, as can be seen from numbers of cranes in the air, and to strengthen this still further, we are committed to ensuring that all planning applications submitted to the council are dealt with speedily and effectively."

The protocol aims to generate closer working between the council and developers while ensuring the local community and stakeholders are engaged with at an early stage to give them plenty of time to influence proposals. A key part of the new protocol is the introduction of Planning Performance Agreements. These agreements set out both parties' commitment to work together and include agreed project-specific milestones and lines of communication.

(JM)