ATLAS is a part of HCA which provides an independent advisory service to local planning authorities that are experiencing the pressures of increased development activity.
ATLAS currently operates nationally with team members based in offices in Milton Keynes, Birmingham, Warrington, Leeds, Ashford and Bristol. The team is sponsored by the Department of Communities & Local Government (CLG) and hosted by the Homes & Communities Agency.
Members of the ATLAS team are experienced in town planning and development issues and have been advising and assisting Local Planning Authorities across a wide variety of complex projects all of which contain a significant number of residential units. The team has rapidly expanded to offer guidance and assistance across a wide range of planning and technical development issues including transport, urban design, social infrastructure and environmental sustainability.
ATLAS is a part of HCA which provides an independent advisory service to local planning authorities that are experiencing the pressures of increased development activity.
ATLAS currently operates nationally with team members based in offices in Milton Keynes, Birmingham, Warrington, Leeds, Ashford and Bristol. The team is sponsored by the Department of Communities & Local Government (CLG) and hosted by the Homes & Communities Agency.
Members of the ATLAS team are experienced in town planning and development issues and have been advising and assisting Local Planning Authorities across a wide variety of complex projects all of which contain a significant number of residential units. The team has rapidly expanded to offer guidance and assistance across a wide range of planning and technical development issues including transport, urban design, social infrastructure and environmental sustainability.
ATLAS only engages where requested by the Local Authority on a case by case basis, at any stage of the development process. Generally the team become involved in large scale or complex residential development projects which have some form of emerging or established planning status. Given the importance and extent of work required pre-application, the team is often involved well in advance of any formal planning application, and are strong advocates of the use of Planning Performance Agreements to give structure to this important stage.
The advice they provide is based upon their background knowledge, experience from project work and other good practice together with the specific circumstances of each individual case. Whilst the team work primarily on behalf of the Local Planning Authority, their advice reflects what the team feel is reasonable and good practice, and as such may be supportive of the position of any stakeholder involved in the process. It is important to stress that ATLAS provides independent (and where necessary confidential) advice.
