Donegal County Council welcomed delegates from Northern Ireland, Sweden, Greece and the Czech Republic to Lifford on Tuesday 28th and Wednesday 29th April for a Study Visit on the Council’s online planning service.
Participants were welcomed by Mr. Brian Boyle, Head of Information Systems, Mr. Denis Kelly, Senior Planner and Ms. Helena O’Toole, Senior Planner.
The programme focused on providing an opportunity for Planners, GIS and IT specialists from other European regions to hear firsthand about Planning in County Donegal. Emphasis was placed on helping them to gain an understanding of our development control processes and procedures and the IT systems used to support them. Having explained how things work internally, participants were given an overview of how the move to having an online service to the public was achieved.
The Study Visit was arranged through the PIKE (Promoting Innovation in the Knowledge Economy) project which is part-funded by ERDF under Interreg IVC. The overall project is led by ERNACT EEIG based in Letterkenny and Donegal County Council’s Information Systems Department who are participating in the project with other regions in Europe from N. Ireland, Sweden, Czech Republic, Greece, Bulgaria and Italy.
Donegal County Council’s Online Planning System had been chosen as one of four Good Practices to be shared with other regions. The participants will now look at how the Donegal experience can be replicated in the context of their own local authority. Donegal County Council is also learning from other European regions through the project, namely the Wireless Cities broadband flagship project in Derry and the eLocal strategic approach to eAdministration developed by EMCANTA and the Regional Government of Cantabria in northern Spain.
For more information on the PIKE project in Donegal County Council, please visit the Council’s website at: http://www.donegalcoco.ie/council/it/Pike/default.htm or the project website at: www.pike-project.eu or contact Ms. Siobhán Foy, IS Project Leader at: email: sfoy@donegalcoco.ie, telephone 074-9172537