Under-fire Shropshire Council planning chief answers critics

The authority has come under fire in recent weeks as housing estates and a supermarket have been given the go-ahead by officers behind closed doors without any public debate, despite having large numbers of objectors.

Malcolm Price, Shropshire Council cabinet member for housing, said the planning department was taking a "kicking from all sides", and yet the process couldn't be more fair and open.

His comments come after an outcry from Oswestry Town Council as plans for an Aldi supermarket in the town – including the demolition of a 200-year-old toll house – were given the go-ahead by unelected officers, despite objections suggesting the scheme should have a full planning committee debate.

There were similar cries of protest over 25 homes off Roden Grove in Wem and 150 homes in Greenfields, Shrewsbury, both of which were delegated to officers to pass without a debate.

Shropshire Council has set up a "task and finish" group to look at such complaints, but Councillor Price said accusations of malpractice or secretive, undemocratic decisions were unfair.

He said: "Most of those decisions that have been made by delegated powers are done because it's in the constitution, it allows that to happen. We do 94 per cent delegation, Chester does 96, Herefordshire does 98 – so clearly our delegation is no different or worse than any other authority, but I can see where the misconception comes from."

He said he was "confident" applications that needed to go to committee were, but said in the past 18 months the council's planning department had been under enormous pressure after 40 per cent of staff were cut but the workload stayed the same.

He said: "As anybody who is involved in planning will tell you, you can't win.

"If I approve an application I please someone and someone else is disappointed – if I do the reverse it's exactly the same again, so you have to accept that's part of the process. But I can't see what we can do that is any fairer or more open than the way we function at the moment.

"We are getting kicked from all sides."

Shropshire Council has three planning committees of elected councillors who can debate whether to pass or refuse applications – one for the north of the county, one for the south and one for central Shropshire.

The committees have to meet in public, but currently only six per cent of applications go before them. The rest are delegated to council staff who follow policy to decide whether to allow or reject applications.