It is a well known fact that the Planning Department have lost an inordinate number of professional staff. Nowadays, it is almost impossible to get any response from the department as lengthy processes are applied to every scrap of any application. I know someone who waited seven months to get permission to remove cement render from one wall of an unlisted cottage in order to have it pointed with breathable lime. This is something which should be possible using delegated powers, no one objected, period.
Now we have a recession which has yet to take its grip on the Island, with the exclusion of the finance industry ( which after all it's sucess is now feeling the pinch ) we have our own internal economy. This economy has never been nurtured by local Government, yet it is the very soul of existance in the Island for many local people.
Many departments have come to the fore and recognise that there are ways that they can help, one in particular seems to be standing out from the crowd-- WHY?
The Planning department needs to realise that there are a good many local people's livelyhoods which are dependant on their efficiency, why don't they do something about it? They issue a survey, but not necessarily to the people whom their tardiness affects, what will be done about it ----nothing. Come on Planning wake up and get on with the job, move with the times and apply common sense to the system.
