South Gloucestershire Council’s development control, building control, and planning enforcement teams, grouped as development services, have been awarded the Government’s Customer Service Excellence (CSE) standard for their commitment to delivering their services with their customers clearly in mind.
The CSE is a national standard which recognises organisations that are firmly focused on customer satisfaction and that go the extra mile to deliver it.
The three teams provide services directly to the residents and business of South Gloucestershire and are responsible for the control of development, through the assessment of planning applications, the enforcement of breaches of planning control and safeguarding the health and safety of people in and around new buildings through effective building control.
The council submitted its application for the CSE standard earlier this year and an independent on-site assessment of services was carried out in June. The assessors found that development services had achieved an ‘exemplary standard of customer service delivery’ and that there was ’strong leadership provided by the service and the engagement of the staff in the customer focus of the service’.
Cllr Brian Allinson, executive member for planning, transportation and strategic environment, said: “The CSE award formally recognises the excellent work done by the development services team and their determination to continually improve the service they provide to their customers.”
Brian Glasson, head of development services, said “Our achievement of the standard has come as a result of a commitment by staff and managers to make our customers a priority. It is especially pleasing that we have achieved ‘exemplary standard’ in a number of areas, underlining that South Gloucestershire is a high-performing council.”
The CSE standard is re-assessed on a three year rolling programme which means that the team will continue to plan and implement improvements to its service delivery.
Source: South Gloucestershire Council
