Planning woe bodes ill for us all

LETTER: Telford & Wrekin Council is forever proclaiming how efficient its services are, yet when it comes to factual reality, in this reader's experience, it fails abysmally.

Last year, following extensive discussions with my "allocated planning officer", and as per "his recommendations", I submitted an application for an extension.

Despite having the support of my neighbours and my local councillor the planning department refused permission using delegated powers.

I complained about the planning officer and the complaint was upheld – no compensation though as it's in the council's fine print. And the planning officer still has his job today. What excellent value for money.

Subsequently, in December I asked the planning department to simply define exactly what a "dwelling house" is. Not particularly difficult, I would have thought, given that the department is supposed to deal primarily with this sort of thing.

Guess what, no-one in the planning department was able to provide a definition and they have had to refer the question to their legal department. Five weeks later I'm still waiting!

With our government's continued "efficient service" like this, UK plc, we are assured, will borrow its way out of recession, and in the meantime allow civil servants to just carry on drawing their wages in the secure knowledge that their jobs are safe, no matter how poorly they perform.

The only efficiency this reader can recognise is the cost of printing the letters "in" in the word inefficient.

Mr T D Guest

Bridgnorth