REGARDING your story ‘Planning complaints no cause for concern’ (Burton Mail, December 21).
We feel some factual clarification is required in order to prevent your readers from being misled.
The 158 cases referred to are not complaints about planning officers, as suggested in the first paragraph of the article, but allegations of breaches of planning regulations by residents or businesses within the borough. It is therefore entirely erroneous to equate this number of planning enforcement cases to a ‘per head’ measure per employee.
If anything, these are complaints by residents about other residents and businesses, and are not complaints about the council’s employees.
However, these cases are being investigated by the planning enforcement officers.
Following investigation, some will prove to not be breaches of planning regulations at all and the files will be closed quickly, while others will require further action by the council to ensure planning regulations are met.
Our planning delivery team is performing to a very high standard, and works hard to ensure it meets its targets with regards to the amount of time dealing with planning inquiries and complaints made by the public.
The article was entirely wrong to misrepresent their planning enforcement cases in this way.
Councillors Robert Hardwick, deputy leader for regulatory services, and Greg Hall, chairman of the planning committee at East Staffordshire Borough Council
