PLANNING applications are taking far longer to be dealt with by Worcester City Council than they should, new figures have revealed.

Members of the city’s planning committee said they were deeply concerned by performance figures showing the council is nowhere near meeting its targets on dealing with applications within a certain amount of time.

Between April and June of this year, less than half of major planning applications in the city were dealt with in 13 weeks – the local target being 75 per cent.

And only 63 per cent of minor applications were dealt with in eight weeks – the local target being 85 per cent.

“It’s worrying to see this trend,” said Labour councillor Paul Denham.

“While there may be reasons for some of them, it’s clear that particularly the (figures for) major applications are pretty poor.”

Earlier this year the man in charge of the city’s planning department, head of urban environment John Wrightson, described the department as “not fit for purpose”.

In his latest report, he told councillors a ‘process review’ was being undertaken to try to improve the situation – but that low staffing numbers were a big part of the problem.

He stated: “The last quarter has demonstrated a further reduction in performance, to the point where it is at the lowest level since 2003.

“It is clear such a small team will be vulnerable to absence. In this quarter there has been continued vacancy of the senior planning officer post (which has been vacant since September, and has been the subject of two unsuccessful attempts at recruitment) and long-term absence of a planning officer due to surgery.”

Coun Denham commented that “we have vacancies open far too long in the planning department, probably because we’re not paying enough.”

His Labour colleague Geoff Williams added: “This is a worrying report. There’s a ‘process review’ taking place that may well throw up some improvements, but I suspect it will require some investment.

“We’ve got a small team there, and a process review won’t change that.”

But Conservative deputy-leader Barry Mackenzie-Williams said the review may well free up officer time by simplifying parts of their job.