Bath & North East Somerset Council’s planning service has won a national Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI) award for Planning Excellence 2015: Excellence in Decision-making.
The 2015 Awards for Planning Excellence were held in London on Monday 6th July, and members of the planning team attended to receive the award.
The Council picked up the award for the Green Park House project in Bath, the redevelopment of a site for a 461 bed student accommodation block and café.
This complex major application was delivered in less than 13 weeks with a legal agreement in place and all pre-commencement conditions resolved.
A record number of entries were considered this year and ‘Excellence in Decision Making’ was the most hotly contested category, says the RTPI.
Green Park House faced competition from four other significant projects which were finalists including the Northern Line extension to Battersea Power Station and the Thames Tideway Tunnel.
Councillor Marie Longstaff (Conservative, Keynsham East), the Council’s Cabinet Member for Homes & Planning, said: “I’d like to congratulate the planning team.
“The planning service is working hard to develop a clear, structured and customer-focused approach to dealing with major developments and this is an excellent example of a highly complex project being delivered very quickly with full community engagement.”
Roisin Willmott, RTPI Awards Advisor said: “Bath and North East Somerset Council demonstrated their positive approach to development management illustrated through the Green Park Redevelopment.
“Good team work and effective community engagement used to deliver this project meant that it received planning approval without significant problems or delays.
“This has meant that the project was able to start quickly and finish to a high standard in a short period of time.
“It is an excellent example of the development management process.”
