As a recently merged authority creating it's first Local Plan for the area, Somerset Council was looking for a  digital solution to transform their manual, traditional approach to call for sites into a digital, data-driven process. In response to government policy, the council also wanted to embark on some research and development to explore custom site assessments for off-site BNG provision across Somerset.

A year into their adoption of digital local plan platform, PlaceMaker, we sat down with Graeme Thompson, Principal Planning Policy Officer, to talk about their digital planning journey and how the planning policy team are using the platform.

Call for sites collected and assessed in a single platform

With a housing target increase of 41% (3,769 per year) under the new NPPF, Somerset needed an efficient and user-friendly tool to speed up their call for sites and site assessment. Graeme shared, "PlaceMaker is a one stop shop where the public can submit their sites through a form, mapping it themselves so they're in charge of whether it's accurate or not. It takes a huge part of the process out of the way and lets us concentrate on what we do with that information - reviewing all of the constraints and opportunities that we've already mapped, all in one place, without switching between systems."

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With an initial automated suitability score, the platform also makes it easy to sift submitted sites to assess further. This saving in officer's time will give Graeme and his team more time to think strategically about how they assess and prioritise sites for potential development.

Bespoke call for sites to identify potential off-site BNG provision

Whilst PlaceMaker can deliver these efficiency savings straight out of the box, Somerset also wanted to explore some bespoke analysis and respond to recent policy changes. Their first piece of work with the Urban Intelligence team was to develop a methodology and custom assessment tool to assess the suitability of off-site land parcels to deliver BNG provision and Phosphate Mitigation. This process would enable the team prioritise sites to build a multi-year pipeline of off-site provision and for accessing Local Nutrient Mitigation Funding.

The team carried out a detailed call for sites exercise for this specific purpose, and used a multi-stage process using automation, partial automation and officer verification to assess and score each potential site that was submitted. This staged approach sped up the process of sifting sites, helping officers prioritise those with the highest likelihood of successfully progressing.

Using this digital call for sites process is estimated to have reduced officer time spent mapping, filtering and assessing sites by 70%.

With this new process, steps such as mapping and sifting are done for officers, either through the site promoter drawing the map as part of their submission, or through the automated first stage of assessment. With all the data in one platform, the later stages of assessment can then be carried out in the one system.

With the BNG call for sites completed, Somerset Council are now running a wider Local Plan call for sites exercise for a wide variety of land uses and expect to achieve even greater efficiencies as they process and assess potentially hundreds of sites.

Data-driven thinking across the council

There is broad-reaching ambition to be a more data-driven council in Somerset. Having innovative tools to bring these ideas to life builds internal momentum for wider improvements in data management and digital planning, to fully realise the opportunities that are now possible with PlaceMaker.

Graeme shared how there is "great potential to significantly help us streamline processes and have everything in one place", something that will help the team work collaboratively and efficiently through every stage of their local plan development. "The process enabled us to understand what other datasets were available to use that we were previously unaware of and it also kickstarted a process of improving our GIS datasets which will benefit the whole of Somerset Council."

As part of their work with Urban Intelligence, officers at Somerset also helped co-design new usability features in the site assessment module of the PlaceMaker platform, this helps improve the digital platform for all our PlaceMaker councils.

Exploring new ideas with the Urban Intelligence team

Urban Intelligence is a team of planners, data scientists and tech experts passionate about helping councils to build sustainable places and understand their communities. Somerset Council is a prime example of a council that wanted more than just an out of the box product, and worked closely with our team to progress in digital planning.

Graeme spoke of his experience so far: "You couldn't ask for better support. The team is very friendly but also incredibly knowledgeable about planning policy and how to make the most of our data. They are very willing to explore new ideas and help us find the right solutions."

Want to discuss how PlaceMaker could enhance your local plan making? Book a free demo today to explore all the product has to offer and meet our team of experts who are here to help driving data-driven plan making throughout your council.