IN LESS than a month’s time, layers of red tape bureaucracy that have frustrated generations of islanders will be cut away.

New planning laws that seek to treat islanders as adults and leave government free to concentrate on issues of real concern come into force on 6 April.

The palpable sense of enthusiasm emanating from professionals spoken to by this newspaper can only lead to optimism that, for once, the state is taking a step back from micro-managing.

It has been a long time coming. The much-maligned staff at the Environment Department have been operating under cumbersome laws dating back to a very different Guernsey of the late-50s and 1960s. More than 10 years ago a report was commissioned to examine how those laws could be updated and, after a few false starts, the resultant new planning and development law was approved in principle by the States in 2002.

It is a sign of the complexity of development laws – and the vacillations of the States – that it has taken another seven years for Environment to be able to get its new toy out of the box.

Now it has done so, however, islanders have been promised a more streamlined, transparent set of rules that place less focus on small extensions and solar panels and more on major planning applications such as Admiral Park.

It is hoped that up to a fifth of planning applications could be taken out of the system.

That in turn should speed up the remaining applications and enable Environment to meet service level agreements such as exist in the UK, where 80% of minor applications are dealt with in eight weeks.

The other side of the Faustian bargain for a better service is, of course, that it is going to cost. Planning fees and building control fees will become part of the bottom line of all applications – with a few exceptions. For a new dwelling that starts at #800 but can rise significantly.

Yet those who have battled in vain for months to get a decision from the IDC (as Environment continues to be called) may consider that a small price to pay for a speedier service.