A POLITICAL row has broken out over claims that corners are being cut and quality is being sacrificed to meet government guidelines on the speed of planning decisions.

Teresa Jamieson, leader of the Liberal Democrat group on East Hampshire District Council, says the councilÕs portfolio councillor for development, Sue Halstead, has admitted that the planning service is under extreme pressure.

Mrs Jamieson warned that cutting corners will result in Òlower customer satisfactionÓ and more appeals against decisions.

She said: ÒMore appeals will increase the cost of the service and delay decisions still further. It would be better to increase the resources of the department or help them become more efficient.

ÒIt is vital in this area of East Hampshire that our environment is cared for and not left to remote government inspectors to decide its future, rather than local councillors and EHDC planning officers.Ó

But Mrs Halsted denies ever using the words Òcutting cornersÓ or ÒextremeÓ pressure.

Reporting to the council, Mrs Halstead said EHDC was now among the top 25 per cent of councils in deciding planning applications within eight weeks, when three years ago it was bottom of the Òleague tableÓ.

She said this had been achieved by changing procedures, giving other work a lower priority and using additional temporary resources.

Mrs Halstead said questions at a meeting of the full council focused on only the last two sentences of her report.

She said: ÒMy answer highlighted the changes to procedure which members had reluctantly agreed earlier this year in order to enable the council to meet the governmentÕs eight-week decision performance indicator.

ÒAt that time delegation of planning decisions to officers was increased and post registration advice to applicants was reduced.

ÒAt the same time a thorough review of the whole planning service was instigated precisely because councillors were aware of the increasing pressures.

ÒThe review has involved all planning staff and a cross-party working group which has included the Liberal Democrats throughout.Ó