The Functionality of the Scheme's Documentation

The accessibility of governance documentation of all kinds has increased exponentially in the parts decade. It can be increasingly assumed that members of a constituency have access to the Internet. Likewise, it is relatively safe to assume that members of ‘the public’ can access Council’s planning documentation online. It is even the case that increasingly this is the preferred method of accessing information relevant to governance issues.

In accord with this, Internet facilitated ‘social networking’ is increasingly a dynamic at play within contemporary community life at some level. While all this is true, it is not yet the case that ‘administrations’ on the one hand have fully embraced the opportunities this social development offers and on the other have over estimated its value and functional value.

Essentially, given the relative newness of the communication paradigm, administrations do not always design their communication and social networking all that well. Nonetheless, the opportunities for governing bodies to work more closely, and more inclusively, with their constituencies (COIs) represents a paradigm shift in planning terms.

This is ever likely to be the case given the current pace of change not to mention the dimensions of these changes. In essence everyone is always playing catchup.

‘That said, it is clear that the need for hardcopy manifestations of things such as maps, reports, assessments, etc. remain but not always in a single format. Indeed, one of the strengths of digital communication is that it can deliver a multiplicity of outputs to fit the various ways they may be best read and/or used.

As evidenced by the public consultation related to the Draft Planning Scheme at Town Hall, large unwieldy topographical and street maps fit the purposes of professionals working alone are not so useful in many other situations. There is a strong case to be put that developers, and planners outside council, need this kind of data in a more manageable format – digital or hardcopy .

Given that digital documentation is able to readily provide this kind of material there is a case to be put that in addition to the large format presentations of documentation there is a need for ancillary, and more manageable, documentation to be made available online and in a hardcopy format for easy reference where appropriate. Ideally hardcopy versions of the planning data needs to be lodged with public libraries fir research and other purposes.

Given that A4 is the format of choice for most office and home printers it would offer the most useful format for the purpose hardcopy and digital archives.

This will mean that maps in particular will need to be tiled as they are in standard street directories but so be it. Where this is inadequate more appropriate formats can be downloaded from the Councils website and printed in a growing number of businesses and/or at Council if need be.

The key factor here is to facilitate multi-functional versions of
planning data rather than control the manner in which this kind of information can be accessed and read. Furthermore, there needs to be some effort devoted to making digitised versions of planning data more able to be interfaced with like information 'off-site'.