eNewsletter from Angus Council Building Standards Team - December 2023

Angus Council sent this bulletin at 22-12-2023 12:02 PM GMT

We wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

It has been a pleasure to serve all our customers, agents, developers, partners and citizens across Angus, Tayside and afar in 2023 and we hope to meet or exceed all your expectations in 2024.

Whatever you are doing or wherever you find yourself have a wonderful festive period!

Help us to help you…

It has been a hard year! Whilst we are doing everything we can to meet our performance targets set by Scottish Government, this remains extremely challenging and we are sorry if we are not meeting your expectations in some cases. Whilst we are not alone in this, we continue to have staffing vacancies within the section going into 2024.

There are some things you can do to help the team cope with the additional workloads they are facing at this current time:

Please read the report letters thoroughly before making contact. Please only call to discuss specific points you feel you would benefit from some clarity.
Return amended drawings in a 'full package' where possible. Sending information to us that answers only some of the points creates additional workload and we may be forced to prioritise complete package uploads over partial information.
Highlight all changes to amended drawings. If we can’t find it easily, we probably won’t find it.
Upload amended drawings through the portal using the Angus Council supplied reference number is preferred where possible, I.e., reference format e.g. 23/00456/DOM
Please trust the process! If you have uploaded additional information through the E-Building Standards portal then please do not call or email us to let us know. It may seem helpful but it doubles up Officer notifications and creates additional work. If you do not hear back from us within 10 working days, please feel free to make contact.

To improve is to change

In coming months we are looking to re-structure the section and you may see changes in Inspecting Officer/Technician areas as a result. All changes are to improve our service to our customers based on feedback and to make the best and most efficient use of our resources. Watch this space!

Changes to Extension to Warrant

There is a national appetite for construction work to be built to current standards therefore Local Authority Building Standards Scotland (LABSS) are looking for authorities to provide a welcomed consistent approach to Extension to Warrants to ensure new homes are built to the current standards.

Please be aware, once proposals are agreed we will be implementing them, so get building!

Remote Verification Inspections

Remote Verification Inspections(RVI) are still taking place where this is beneficial and agreed.

However, photos and videos are only acceptable if agreed in advance with the area Officer or Technician noted on the Construction Compliance Notification Plan (CCNP).

Did you know?

There is an easily accessible guide on how to make a quality Building Warrant application free to access and download. The Scottish Government produced guide can be found at https://www.gov.scot/publications/making-quality-building-warrant-application-need-know/
The Technical Handbooks are due to change AGAIN in April 2024…when we know more we shall share the information. If you can’t wait, sign up to the Building Standards Division BLOG at https://blogs.gov.scot/building-standards/
This year we dealt with 964 applications for Building warrants and 1018 completion certificate submissions….that's a lot, well done to everyone involved in the process. #greatpeoplegreatplace

It only takes a minute….

Please remember to complete our customer survey as often as you can. We can only target improvements in line with what our customers really want from us.

You can fill it in at https://www.smartsurvey.co.uk/s/BuildingStandardsNationalSurvey/?la=Angus

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