Wigan Council planning portal crash mystery

The planning portal, which is used by members of the public who wish to view and comment on or object to applications, has been temporarily closed since the start of last week due to "circumstances beyond [the council’s] control".

Wigan Council was alerted to the software issue last week – but the local authority does not know how long it will take for the issue to be resolved.

The same problem is said to be affecting some other councils too.

The Local Democracy Reporting Service became aware of the issue ont Monday December 13 and was told the authority was working on fixing it.

However, a town hall spokeswoman said it does not have any indication yet of when the website will be up and running again.

She said: “We were alerted to a software issue last week, not only affecting Wigan but a number of authorities, which meant we needed to temporarily close our search and comment section on our planning application site.

“We are working with our software provider to restore the system as soon as possible.”

The planning department is continuing as usual without delaying deadlines.

As an interim measure, the council is publishing a daily list of all planning applications which are currently being considered by the local authority.

Anyone wishing to comment on planning applications can email the council.

Wigan Council apologised for the disruption caused by the software issue.

A spokesperson added: “We apologise for any disruption caused, and would ask that people email any comments on applications to planning@wigan.gov.uk in the meantime while this is resolved.

“We are publishing a daily list of all open cases, with links to the applications documents, on our website which people can view as a temporary measure.”

Anyone can access the daily list of open cases by visiting Wigan council’s website on www.wigan.gov.uk and selecting "search planning applications" under the "Planning and building control" section on the homepage.

The daily list is available by clicking on "Planning applications proposal".

Members of the public can email any comments on applications to planning@wigan.gov.uk quoting the reference number in the subject line.

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