In October 2015 the Government of Gibraltar launched its ePlanning service. This allows members of the public to view planning applications online, including all the plans and other documents submitted with an application.

The service has been well received and the take-up for submitting applications via the service has been positive and encouraging. In 2016 approximately 60% of applications were submitted online, which is a much higher proportion than originally anticipated. There are now approx 500 users registered for the ePlanning service and the majority of these are professional agents and members of the public who have registered in order to be able to submit their applications in this manner.

Since its launch, the Department of Town Planning and Building Control has been working with its programmers and the Government’s IT Department to further develop the service available to the public.

Government says it is now pleased to announce that it has released an additional feature which is available on the ePlanning portal. This “view” feature adds to the existing service by allowing the public to search and view applications by use of a map of Gibraltar; hence, it is possible to navigate to any area of interest by using standard navigation tools. Specific applications can then be called up for any given area by simply drawing and highlighting the relevant area of the map.

The new map search tool includes other useful features such as a Street Gazetteer allowing users to easily navigate to any given street. It also allows for the easy downloading of information on applications and a print facility is also available. The print facility provides users who are submitting an application the ability to easily produce location and site plans for inclusion in their submissions and applications.

Commenting on the new improved ePlanning service the Minister with responsibility for Town Planning, Paul Balban, said:

“The Government has made huge strides in making the planning process more transparent and accessible to the public. The ePlanning service introduced in October 2015 was an important element of this and has given the public easy access to information on applications that affect their environment. The latest improvement to the ePlanning service is intended to make it as easy as possible for the public to access information on planning applications. It will also be an extremely useful tool for professionals working within the field.

“I would like to take this opportunity to thank the staff of the Department of Town Planning and Building Control, the Government’s IT Department and the programme developers for their hard work on the continued development of the service”.

The e-planning portal can be accessed through the Government’s e-Government platform www.egov.gi