Lightening fast KSAC

A lengthy wait for approval from external agencies and technology issues continue to hamper efforts by the Kingston and St Andrew Corporation (KSAC) to speed up the building development approval process.

But chairman of the KSAC, Angela Brown Burke, said despite the challenges there has been a marked reduction in the time that persons have to wait for word on their applications.

"It continues to be something that we are concerned about and we are working with external agencies to improve (this)," said Brown Burke, in relation to the lengthy period taken by some external agencies to do their part in processing building applications.

The KSAC has vowed to meet a 90-workday processing deadline for building applications, as stipulated by the Government, with the introduction of a data-management system at all parish councils earlier this year.

However, Brown Burke argued that the KSAC is doing even better than planned as 95 per cent of the building applications received by the KSAC in November have been approved, with only 27 applications still outstanding.

"The majority of these outstanding applications are awaiting comments from external agencies," said the mayor, noting also that issues surrounding information communication technology "are retarding some of what we do".

Earlier this year, the KSAC reported that it had processed more than 700 building applications, which had been lingering there for more than a year.

This clean-up was done within months after a backlog review programme had commenced.

According to information obtained through the Access to Information Act earlier this year, the island's parish councils and the KSAC received 28,515 building plans between 2008 and 2013, and had approved 24,528 of them.

At that time, the KSAC had pointed to the slow work of external agencies as one of its problems. The Ministry of Local Government, the National Environment and Planning Agency, the National Works Agency and the Ministry of Health are among the agencies which the KSAC depends on before it can process a building application.

Last week, director of planning at the KSAC, Shawn Martin, said that while the issues continue to hamper the parish council's efficiency, things have been looking up.

"There is evidence of the tremendous work that is happening now, with regard to development approval. We have had record numbers of approvals, and that trend has continued," Martin told The Sunday Gleaner.

"We and our partners have been meeting and consulting with other stakeholders in the development industry, with a view to serving you better," added Martin.