The UK Planning Portal has a news item, which reports upon the latest news on the new Northern Irish e-planning system – e-PIC. I followed the link to the Northern Irish Executive’s press release but that shed no light on the fact the a system that was planned to cost £5.5 million and be online in 2006 (it started in 2004) was now expected in at £12.7 million and was still not c0mplete.
Whilst I think an obvious saving is made by having the single planning system across the six counties and numerous authorities that make up Northern Ireland, I do hope that when calculating the service costs compared with face-to-face and telephony, all those millions are taken into account…
