TRIBUTES have been paid to retiring chairman of

East Hampshire District Council's south planning committee, Sue Halstead.

Mrs Halstead, who has served on the council since May l987, did not stand again in the local government elections held yesterday (Thursday).

She has been chairman of the planning committee for the south of the district for more than 10 years. Mrs Halstead was also portfolio holder for development when the new cabinet-style district council took shape.

She was chairman of the environment committee from l999 until the committee was disbanded to make way for the new-style council.

On Tuesday Mrs Halstead chaired her last south planning committee and took the opportunity to thank all councillors and officers for their support.

"The local plan inquiry has opened and we are well on top of our performance targets," Mrs Halstead told the meeting, "as a result of that we have got the planning delivery grant, which has enabled us to move forward with items on the planning review. I feel that the planning department is as well resourced as it has ever been and I am pleased to be leaving at a time when it is going well."

She paid tribute to Teresa Jamieson and Harry Cunliffe who also retired from the council this week.

Mrs Jamieson thanked Mrs Halstead for all her hard work as chairman and said she was one of the few councillors who took a "corporate view" of planning, caring and working hard for every part of the district.

Planning control manager, Ian Ellis told her: "I would like to say an especial thank-you to Mrs Halstead. I arrived at EHDC as area planning officer south, six months after Mrs Halstead was elected. While it would be nice to take some credit for her subsequent development as the finest planning committee chairman I have ever worked with, this would be churlish given that it has been her interest, commitment, enthusiasm, persistence, advice, and support that has been fundamental to all that is good about the council's planning service as a whole."

He added: "Mrs Halstead will be a very hard act to follow."