Council criticised over planning delays

West Berkshire's Liberal Democrats have described the council's performance as 'simply not good enough'

WEST Berkshire's Liberal Democrats have criticised the council's Conservative administration over the length of time it is taking to determine planning applications.

At last Thursday's meeting of the council's executive, it was revealed that the district council is not currently meeting its targets for determining 80 per cent of major planning applications within 13 weeks and 80 per cent of minor applications within eight weeks, as set out by the Government.

Both performance indicators in the council's plan outcomes for quarter two of 2011/12 (July, August and September 2010) were ‘red' - meaning they are on track to fail their target - with percentages of 77.8 per cent and 71.3 per cent respectively, which, alongside seven other targets, are not expected to be met by the end of the financial year.

The council has said that the delays in processing planning applications has been due to a rise in the number of applications up to pre-recession levels, coupled with a number of vacant and frozen posts in registration and development control.

However, the Liberal Democrat spokesman on planning, Royce Longton (Lib Dem, Burghfield) said the council's performance was “simply not good enough.”

He said: “The council urgently needs to recruit enough staff to get us back on target. Otherwise we shall not only continue to inconvenience our local planners, but the council will also start losing money through having costs awarded against it in appeals for non-determination.”

The chairman of the eastern area planning committee, Brian Bedwell (Con, Calcot), has described the current situation as a blip, adding that a lot of officers' time had been taken up with major applications in recent times, with such plans as those for Underwood Road and Pincents Hill.

He said he was concerned about the failure to meet the targets though and said he hoped that by recruiting more officers, the situation may improve.

Meanwhile, the chairman of the western area planning committee, Paul Bryant (Con, Speen), said funding was also an issue within the planning department, adding that money could not be magicked out of thin air to recruit staff and that some applications were being delayed as a result of the current situation.

West Berkshire's executive member for planning, Alan Law (Con, Basildon), has confirmed that approval has been given to recruit additional planning officers to support the increased workload in the frontline service of planning.

He said the council was taking positive steps to ensure it gets back to and retains its high level of service, which has seen it ranked within the top quarter of local authorities in England for planning performance in recent years.