Council to invest more than £1million in its planning service after "delays and complaints"
Lichfield District Council is to invest more than £1million in improving its planning service following complaints from residents and developers.
The authority says the service, which deals with local planning applications, will receive a funding boost over the next five years to help it restructure and improve services to residents.
Lichfield District Council’s Cabinet agreed plans to restructure its development management service at a meeting on Tuesday September 7.
The budget increase will see the planning department receive an extra £1.13 million between 2021 and 2026.
The council says this will allow the service to be reorganised and build extra capacity, include additional training and create new roles to meet "a significant increase" in demand.
Councillor Angela Lax, Cabinet Member responsible for Development Management, said: “Our development management team has been dealing with a 26 percent increase in its workload over the past year, which has resulted in some delays and complaints from residents and developers.
“Bringing in a new structure and posts should relieve much of the pressure on the team.
"It will also make sure we have the experience in-house to deal with upcoming major planning applications.
“We are confident the changes will lead to faster processing times and better customer service, which should boost overall satisfaction with the service.”
To see the full report go to www.lichfielddc.gov.uk/septembercabinet.
