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From the archive, first published Thursday 19th Jan 2006.

Dear editor I am sorry that Cllr Stoddart considers me to be ill-informed about so many matters.

Perhaps he just misunderstands my drift. All I'm saying is that we expect all cabinet members to be pro-active for their authority within their remits, and surely no-one should criticise a particular cabinet member for working hard.

While no cabinet member appears to have a planning remit as such, does that really matter? Almost all of the cabinet members run into planning problems in their work, and will seek professional advice from time to time.

As to the ludicrous ban on planning officers giving advice on applications, this goes back to a letter dated August 17, 2004, in which the head of planning announced the withdrawal of advice because of workloads on his staff.

Clearly this ban did not and could not apply to county councillors, and I am surprised that Cllr Stoddart would consider the opinion of an official (even the director of development) as definitive in this regard.

Although officials may think that they run the county council, it is actually the other way round. It is the elected members who make the rules for the officials.

I am not aware of any council decision which would inhibit members from giving advice to the public; indeed such a decision would be illegal.

No other planning authority in west Wales has found it necessary to introduce such a ban on pre-application planning advice, which is all the more surprising when one learns that Pembrokeshire's planning services are among the most over-staffed and expensive in Wales.

In this connection it is instructive to recall what the Audit Commission said in its August 2002 Best Value Report on PCC Planning Services, and I quote :

"There is a lack of easily available customer-friendly information about services and about the council's planning policies.

"The way planning services' aims and objectives are presented change from year to year and this is confusing and insufficiently clear and challenging.

"The cost of planning services, according to the National Assembly for Wales' indicator, was the sixth highest in Wales in 2000/01. However, as this data has not been audited, further examination of this information is needed.

"There is no systematic monitoring of all customer charter standards.

"There is no code of practice for councillors and officers involved in planning.

"The development team working practice note is too general and many internal and external service users are unaware of the difference in approach intended by the initiative.

"There is no formal evaluation and reporting system for delegated planning applications.

"There are a number of staff issues such as low morale, inadequate priority setting and a lack of regular, minuted team meetings."

Reading through this sorry list of shortcomings, one might well ask what has changed.

If any of these issues had been addressed by planning services in the past three and a half years, it might not be necessary for the Ombudsman to make such serious criticisms as you reported recently.

Richard Shepherd Whalecwm House The Ferry Cosheston Pembroke

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