Council wins prestigious award

Rossendale Council’s Planning Team has won a top regional award for its practice.

The team won the Best Practice Award at the Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI) North West Regional Awards for Planning Excellence 2017 for its work on the new McDonalds at Rawtenstall.

A new award category was created for this scheme and the judges confirmed that the scheme was given special status because it demonstrated how a small local planning authority can achieve an excellent outcome in dealing with an application from a world famous company.

The judges continued to say: “We were able to visit the finished product and see for ourselves the undoubted quality of the completed drive-thru restaurant.”

You can find more information about the awards here.

Responding to news of the award, Councillor Alyson Barnes said:

“I am delighted we have won this award. It is richly deserved. It shows what a difference the Council can make to ensure schemes are right for the borough.

“As the judges stated, we pressed for a more creative solution than the original one proposed. We negotiated for seven months and McDonald’s architect finally came back with what the judges said was “a bespoke, contemporary and attractive building.

“A lot of this great work often goes under the radar so it very pleasing our work on this has been recognised.”

 

Nicola Hopkins, The Council’s Planning Manager, said:

“I am thrilled that the hard work of the team has been recognised by a prestigious organisation such as The Royal Town Planning Institute. All of the officers work extremely hard and always seek the best possible schemes for the Borough. The finished McDonald’s restaurant is an excellent example of how Local Authority Planning Officers can have a positive impact within their areas and this has been recognised by the new award category which has been awarded to the team.”

The RTPI represents over 24,000 members worldwide and shapes planning policy, raises professional standards and are the only body in the UK to confer Chartered status to planners, the highest professional qualification.