Ringing changes in Cheshire in 2009
Limehouse Software is pleased to announce that it has been selected by Cheshire West & Chester Council, a new unitary authority coming into force on April 01 2009.
A radical overhaul of the existing two tier system of local government has led to the grouping together of several local authorities into larger unitary councils. It will be imperative that these new organisations can come together seamlessly and in a unified way with little or no disruption to citizens and stakeholders.
For the planning departments within Cheshire West & Chester, the task of producing a unified Local Development Framework across several existing local authorities in different locations, had became a complicated one.
As a current supplier to one of the existing authorities - Ellesmere Port & Neston Borough Council - Limehouse Software’s solutions have been chosen to facilitate collaboration across the new unitary authority.
Via a web based tool, Limehouse Software’s ucreate will enable online collaboration between all relevant Planning Policy Officers in creating the LDF, regardless of location. This means content can be assembled with ease and subsequently published at the click of a button to fully designed PDF, HTML and XML.
In addition, the uengage module will then allow the unitary council to consult all relevant stakeholders, citizens and partners on the LDF and to analyse and manage the results via sophisticated back-office functionality.
Four local authorities are being merged to form the new unitary council: Vale Royal, Chester City, Cheshire County and Ellesmere Port & Neston Borough. Limehouse Software is currently undertaking data migration in order to produce one unified stakeholder database for future consultations. Training will commence in the new year in time for the launch of the new Cheshire West & Chester Council in April.
Ed Hopper, Sales Director, Limehouse Software said “With this fresh approach to how councils will be structured, it’s more important than ever that authorities have the tools to facilitate joined-up working. Our web-based solutions provide an efficient and cost-effective way to do this. We are delighted that we have been able to build upon our long-standing relationship with Ellesmere Port & Neston Borough and are excited to be working with one of the first new unitary authorities”.
