TOWN and parish councillors have aired concerns over new government calls to make all planning applications available online in time for April Fool's Day next year. At a forum meeting, East Hampshire District Council planners explained how the changes would impact on towns and parishes but councillors remained unhappy at the enforced and potentially costly changes. Among concerns councillors had were: 1 How they would be able to condense plans online that could be one-and-a-half inches thick when printed in hard copy; 2 How to read blurred pages online; 3 If the attendance of planning officers at meetings would be affected; 4 Would projectors be provided to allow members of the public attending meetings to view plans? 5 Would the town and parish councils be lumbered with the huge costs of providing plans? Town and parish councillors urged EHDC to use its position to help out by block buying any necessary equipment. Liss parish councillor Sue Halstead said: "Budget is coming up fast so this is an opportunity for council officers to work with individual parish councils. There is an indication that money should be spent to help parishes solve the problem." Other councillors claimed that by processing applications online only, the government was taking away the public's right to freedom of choice. Bramshott and Liphook parish councillor Anna James said: "I represent people and if the people I represent want to check a plan on a piece of paper I want to offer them the choice." Petersfield Town Council clerk Neil Hitch said: "I am all for moving forward, but there should be an element of choice. Possibly the cost of this is being transferred from developers to local councils." EHDC head of planning development Daryl Phillips told the councillors how the plans were going to affect them, as the district council set out to meet government targets to bring them up to date. However, he did promise some money to help them bridge the change. Mr Phillips said: "The electric world is all around us and local authorities are also affected. "The government measures us against electronic targets and they say the information should be available 365 days a year. There is a cost consequence as we have to get the software and people in. "It's inevitable that in a few years there will be no paper copies, but at the moment everyone will have to change their work processes. We have to bite the bullet now and press on." Mr Phillips assured councillors that in some instances hard copies of applications would need to be provided, but human resource issues had led to the enforced change. To ride the changes at meetings parish council's were told they would need a laptop to download information, a delivery mechanism, such as a projector, and a screen to project plans. Mr Phillips said: "We are happy to help provide the costs to get over that hurdle. We need a target and that target is April 1. "It's a time for change and we need to see how we are going to embrace it." Deputy leader of EHDC Sam James said: "This will affect the couple who do not have a computer and who have gone in to the library for years to look at the plans. "Plans are illegible on a small screen. We need to make some proposals to the government. Whoever thought this one through knows nothing about planning applications."
