The municipal Town Planning Department has introduced a new IT tool that will offer greater access to information for users as well as promising to halve waiting time for planning permission.

The department, currently run by councillor Isabel Pérez, has received numerous complaints about the delays in the approval of building permits and licences.

The annulment of the 2010 PGOU (town development plan) overwhelmed the department with extra work at a time when the construction sector was starting to pick up after the crisis, a situation that the town hall admitted had slowed down procedures.

Pérez explained on Tuesday that the new system would allow users to access “from their own computer all the information about their case permitted by law”.

There will be a scanning service available, however, to users who still want to submit in their applications in paper format.

PGOU modifications

The system will be used first to register objections and questions regarding the initial version of the adaptation of the 1986 PGOU, which the town had to revert to after the 2010 plan was overturned, to comply with the Andalusian planning law known as the LOUA.

This document is due to be published in a matter of days, said the councillor, when a two-month consultation period begins. The information, and means of registering a response to it, will be available online and at the municipal offices.

“All these measures seek transparency and accessibility for residents with regard to planning documents,” said Pérez at a press conference that was in all probability her last as head of Planning before the no confidence vote brings in a new mayor next week.