A REVIEW of the way Dorset Council operates its powers of delegation for planning applications may be considered.

Dorchester councillor Andy Canning said there was now a willingness to consider change, which could be good news for the town.

He told a town council meeting that Dorset Council had accepted that the current planning system could be improved and was prepared to look at a different approach.

Currently the majority of applications are decided by officers with ward councillors able to ask for contentious items to go before an area committee, although the majority of these requests are refused.

In some councils a ward councillor request for an item to go to committee has to be actioned and cannot be over-ruled.

One other area of contention has been the “weight” which is given to a ward councillor’s views, or the views of a town and parish council, with complaints about local views being ignored.

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