Planning search delays giving rise to complaints

LENGTHY delays in processing applications for planning searches to Wexford County Council could result in the service being scrapped if the situation can’t be improved, Deputy Chief Executive Tony Larkin has told a Council meeting.

Cllr. George Lawlor raised the problem of delays and said he is aware of one case in which a man who is purchasing a house, made a planning search request in June and is still waiting for a response.

He needs a result by the end of September when his mortgage approval is due to run out. The applicant was told that the planning department doesn’t have the staff to carry out searches, said Cllr. Lawlor.

Senior planner James Lavin said the service which is offered at a minimum cost can be provided quickly if there is sufficient staff and that was possible in past years before the growing increase in planning activity witnessed recently.

‘There was an option to provide a range or services when we did have the staff. If you give me the details I’ll will check it out and come back to you’, he said.the Deputy Chief Executive said he is of the view that ‘we either do it or not’.

‘If we can’t provide the service within a reasonable time we need to stop doing it but before that we’ll have a look at it’, he said.

Mr. Larkin said they were looking at an automatic service allowing an applicant’s agent to get the main elements of a planning search from the Council website and the senior planner is working on a project to make that happen.

‘The current situation is unsatisfactory and is undesirable. It’s been an ongoing thing since planning activity built up again. We would hope to have an automatic service in place by the end of the year’, he said.