In 2018 Peter and his change team at Wycombe Council held a workshop to reimagine the future of planning. Already, the change programme was making big improvements but both he and his team knew a step change would be required to dramatically reduce the number of invalid planning applications coming in. The answer had to be technology; effectively designing out each cause of invalidation before it happened.

​

As chance would have it, Southwark Council were found to also be working hard on the same challenge. Peter contacted Southwark and their supplier, Open Systems Lab, and a few weeks later resources had been pooled.

​

When an opportunity arose to seek MHCLG funding, other councils joined the initiative with Lambeth leading on the bid. Wycombe was already leading on the maximum of 2 bids - Planning Value and BI in Planning.

​

With alpha funding secured in October 2019 and  beta funding in April 2020, the team have continued their excellent work in reducing the cost of this largely avoidable issue. Further details are available on the Open Digital Planning website.