Half the cases handled by the case officer required him to set up meetings. 5.1 Introduction Businesses and others undertaking new development can find it confusing when they have to deal with different council officers in relation to the different consents which they need. On occasion, they may be unsure about who to contact or may receive conflicting messages from those they speak to. The pilot authorities were therefore asked to offer all business applicants requiring more than one approval a case officer to guide them through the various consent processes and to ensure that these were co-ordinated in a helpful and efficient way. The case officer was asked to liaise with other approval-giving bodies where this was appropriate.
Many authorities already operate a case officer system.
The pilot projects took this approach one stage further by providing a case officer who would act as a single contact point for business applicants in relation to the various different approvals. The arrangements for providing a case officer in the pilot authorities are described in the box opposite. These issues are discussed in turn below. 5.2 Deciding when to allocate the case officer The case officer may be allocated to the case when the user first approaches the authority, in setting up pre-application discussions or when the first application is received. The usual approach is to allocate case officers once formal applications have been submitted.