Customer Charter

Our Customer Charter sets out specific commitments to you as our customer in terms of the standard of service you can expect from us. It also sets out how you can help us to help you provide excellent services.

You can view or download the April 2008 Customer Charter for the documents table below.

We are committed to providing a high quality and responsive service to all our citizens, partners and those who want to come and invest in Plymouth. As a City Council we are committed to the values of ambition, equality, respect and integrity. As a service we are committed in all the work we do we do to the following eight service values:

Inclusion

We will aim to ensure that our Planning Services activity secures real quality of life improvements for all sectors of the community. This requires that we are well informed about community needs and are proactive in seeking to address disadvantages and deprivation where we have the power to do so.

Engagement

We do not believe that we can plan effectively for the city’s future and manage change in the environment without engaging with the people that live, work and invest here. We will seek to engage with local communities and key stakeholders, and where appropriate to work in partnerships to pool resources for the identification and delivery of sustainable quality solutions.

Sustainability

We aim to achieve high quality sustainable solutions that endure. This means a commitment to forward planning and to seeking high quality solutions that will survive the test of time. It also means a commitment to genuinely sustainable solutions that have regard not just for immediate needs but take account of the potential effects of development on future generations.

Deliverability

We aim to be grounded in reality and practicality. The plans and strategies that we produce and the programmes that we develop must be deliverable. We will ensure there is a clear implementation strategy for all our work.

Adding value

We will strive for integrated solutions that add value and support other objectives. We aim to ensure that our plans, strategies and programmes are consistent and self-supporting. We will support the wider objectives of the Council and its partners, and add value through ensuring appropriate development planning, regeneration and design frameworks are in place.

Customer focus

We will strive to provide the highest standards of care for all of our customers. Our customers include the general public, developers and their agents, businesses and organisations in the city, councillors and council officials, and indeed any person or group who we relate to or have an effect on.

Staff focus

Our staff are fundamental to achieving our goals. We will invest in professional development for our staff. We will strive to ensure that each person has the opportunity to make a real difference in the workplace, and for this to be acknowledged and valued by management.

Excellence

We will strive for a culture of excellence (but not perfectionism) in what we do and how we do it. Our aim will be to provide high quality services and work, no matter how small or large the task. In this respect, customers can have a reasonable expectation that services provided to them will be well founded and properly co-ordinated within our teams and with those provided by others in the Council.

Plymouth Regeneration Forum

The Plymouth Regeneration Forum has been established and has the very important role in helping Plymouth deliver its growth objectives. It is felt that in order to maximise loyalty and attendance the forum should be through paid membership. This should be open to the development community in its widest sense, Planning and Regeneration, Plymouth City Council, executives, architects, consultants, construction industry professionals, contractors, developers, bankers, that is, anyone with an interest in the planning and redevelopment process. A fee has been set at £50 per year, if you are interested in becoming a member please contact the Planning Services Department on 01752 305477.

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