Shropshire Council planning decisions 'taking too long', says surveyor

Paul Madeley, owner of Madeleys Chartered Surveyors in Much Wenlock, said that validation of some planning applications with Shropshire Council is now taking up to four weeks, and that some are taking six months for a decision.

He said: "Once we put an application in we do not have acknowledgement of that for about a month. It takes a month for them to validate it and that adds another month to the delays we already face. It just takes so long.

"We are advising clients on how they can maximise their income from the assets they own, some of that might be getting planning permission or diversifying into other opportunities and everything is going on hold when we put a planning application in.

"As it stands at the moment the Government policy is to encourage a lot more development but the council cannot cope with the amount coming in, you can see that."

He added: "This is definitely the worst since I started, but they are having to deal with larger and more complex planning applications."

Charis Denham, who also works for Madeleys, said: "The initial validations of applications, where the paperwork is simply checked to ensure it has been filled in correctly, is taking up to a month to be done.

"Clients are growing increasingly concerned as they aren't seeing progress of their applications because they are not being validated until weeks after actual submission.

"This leads to delays with other aspects of the projects and is causing problems for farmers and landowners submitting applications."

Mal Price, Shropshire Council's cabinet member for regulatory services, apologised for the delays and said action was being taken to address the problems.

He said: "Validation of planning applications at Shropshire Council is currently taking between three and four weeks, and clearly applications need to be validated in order of submission.

"The reasons for the delays are numerous, but primarily include unprecedented volumes and complexity of applications. Solutions are being put in place to reduce the backlog as quickly as possible, and staffing levels and experience are returning to the level required to improve the service to an appropriate standard. In the interim, Shropshire Council apologise to all applicants, agents and other service users for any inconvenience caused."