A WRECCLESHAM couple have lodged a formal complaint with Waverley Council, claiming planning officers first lost two sets of their plans, then abused them in public when they went to Waverley's offices in Godalming to sort the matter out. Donna Letch, a solicitor from Wrecclesham, claims one member of staff swore about her in the council reception in front of public witnesses. Another accused her of using a disabled child to try to get round the planning system. In a statement to The Herald the council, ranked by the Audit Commission as among the worst performing councils for satisfaction with its planning service, apologised "for the delay and the confusion". Mrs Letch, however, said she personally had received no apology and will continue to pursue her complaint. She explained how she and her policeman husband, Robert, want to raise the roof of her chalet bungalow in Wrecclesham Hill by three feet to accommodate an extra room upstairs for her 20- year-old daughter. Her daughter, a single mother with a seven-month- old baby, suffers from night seizures, and her parents want her to be able to sleep on the same floor as themselves. Mrs Letch said first she has had proposals looked at in the council's planning surgeries. However, the designs submitted were not viewed favourably, so they submitted plans for a pre- application inquiry, having been advised that the planning department would give it more time. She claims the first set of plans were sent by post in February, but she was told they had not been received. A second set was posted at the beginning of March and when she enquired about them, she was again told they had not been received. "They made it very, very clear that they thought I was lying about sending them in. I was told 'it's incredible what people will do to get around the waiting procedure'. Mrs Letch said she collected another set of papers from home, and she and her husband took them to the council offices at Godalming. Because of what had gone before, rather than leave them at reception, Mrs Letch asked if she could hand them in person to someone from the planning department. "I was told there was not one person in the planning department available to come and get the papers." She said she phoned the planning department herself from reception on her mobile phone and explained the situation to a man. She said she was put on hold, only for a male member of staff to appear, apparently unaware that she was waiting, and say to the receptionist "I can't believe this 'effing' woman." Something of an altercation then took place and according to Mrs Letch, the man said the department didn't lose things, while she drew attention to a recent Herald article which recorded the poor report the Waverley planning department had received from the Audit Commission. In due course, Mrs Letch continued, a female officer came out "looking for a fight and said 'how dare you mention that article'. "She said in order to get the co-operation of the planning department I needed to endear myself to them, and I hadn't." Mrs Letch said she stressed to the woman the importance to her family of securing planning consent. "She said what people like me have to realise was that planning officers were badly paid and therefore there was low morale and they were very overworked. "She said she was disgusted with people like me who used disabled children to get around planning regulations." Mrs Letch said she then demanded to speak to the head of department. "They said they were going to have me arrested because I would not leave the building." Eventually head of planning John Anderson came down and, to add insult to injury, she claimed, was carrying the two sets of "lost" papers. He offered no apology, said Mrs Letch, and indicated that basically her plans were at the back of the queue again, because the time limit for considering the originals had been exceeded. "I just thought it was absolutely disgusting. I was a solicitor for Citizens Advice and used to work with Hart Council. I just can't imagine this would ever happen there," she remarked. In a statement, Waverley commented: "The council did not deal with Mr and Mrs Letch's pre- application plans as quickly as we should, and there was initial confusion about whether or not we had received her plans. "We apologise to Mr and Mrs Letch for the delay and the confusion about their pre-application inquiry. "We appreciate that this application involves very sensitive issues for the family. "Mr and Mrs Letch's latest proposal has now been reviewed by another Waverley planning officer, who wrote to them last Friday giving his views and offering to discuss the proposal further with their architect or agent. "The chief executive is currently investigating a formal complaint from Mr and Mrs Letch about how staff dealt with their pre-planning inquiry and they will receive a response to this soon." It seems, however, that confusion has continued to reign, with the couple receiving two letters from Waverley last Monday - one warning their plan could not be looked at for three weeks and the other giving an officer's opinion on it. The second letter stated they could phone the officer concerned to discuss the opinion, which Mrs Letch did, only to be told he was on holiday for two weeks. "Despite the fact that our council tax is ludicrously high, they are still unable to provide a decent service,"she summed up.
