The Department of Planning would like to encourage relevant stakeholders and the general public to utilise the online Official Gazette to access planning and subdivision application notices. The Official Gazette can be found at www.gov.bm/official-gazette and has allowed the Department of Planning to take a more efficient and streamlined approach towards the advertisement of planning applications.

The online gazette has provided a number of benefits to the overall planning process. Some of the more notable benefits include:

• Official notices can now be gazetted on any day of the week

o Prior to the implementation of the online Gazette, past practice was for Official Gazettes to be printed on Friday in a local newspaper. While advertisements could be gazetted on other days, it incurred an additional cost. The online Gazette now allows advertisements to be posted on any day, Monday through Friday free of charge.

• The online gazette provides the public with the opportunity to access past and present official notices at any given time. All notices are cataloged at the time of gazette and available for public consumption indefinitely.

• Streamlining of the Planning process

o In a ministerial statement delivered earlier this year, the Minister of Home Affairs, Walter Roban outlined various initiatives to streamline the Planning process. Use of the Official Gazette is one such example.

The Department of Planning’s use of the online Gazette does adhere to all legislative guidelines regarding the advertisement of planning applications, laid out in the Development and Planning (Application Procedure) Rules 1997.

For reference, please also find ‘A Guide to Publicity and Commenting on Planning Applications’ attached.

• Press release from the Department of Planning