The Council has transformed the Planning department since Labour got in. We inherited a ridiculous position from the Tories with over seven hundred undetermined planning applications and have reduce this to well under a hundred, with new applications being determined within our target times. Some of the undetermined cases had been sat in the system for over 7 years!
Applicants are delighted that cases are being managed much more effectively and efficiently, and we are seeing the benefit as partners such as Panattoni are using the department as a selling point for new investment. The joint venture between the Council and developers at Wichelstowe is moving ahead at pace after being delayed by the Tory dysfunction, and houses in the New Eastern Villages are going up thanks to a close collaboration between the developer and the Council.
It beggars belief that the Conservatives were so incompetent at running the system.