A LACK of communication between Malvern Hills District Council and Powick Parish Council has left parish councillors feeling let down.

"There are matters causing great concern to parishioners, including on-going worries about the future of Stanbrook Abbey at Callow End and permitted development at Colletts Green," said Powick planning chairman John Mason.

He told fellow members he had raised these issues at the end of a meeting convened by MHDC to discuss the proposed amalgamation of its northern and southern area planning committees, which he said 99 per cent of parish council representatives had opposed.

"I took the opportunity to say that I felt Malvern Hills had let us down badly in matters of communication," he said.

On Stanbrook Abbey, which is to be sold so that the religious community can move to a purpose-built new home in North Yorkshire, members only knew what they read in the newspapers, said Mr Mason.

After a garage conversion in Colletts Green, which went ahead as 'permitted development', parishioners had come knocking on his door demanding to know why the parish council had approved this 'monstrosity', when he knew nothing about it.

"Malvern Hills should have a system of notifying the clerk to the parish council that permission has been given in cases like that," he said.

Asked about the outcome of the meeting on amalgamating the planning committees, he said he had heard nothing from MHDC since the meeting on July 18.

"The reason given for having just one committee was that planning was an important issue that should not be left to people who don't know what they are talking about. So instead of having representatives of all areas on the planning committees, they would train 15 members to be experts," he said.

District councillor Tom Wells said planning decisions would be more consistent if there were only one committee, but local representatives would always have the opportunity to attend planning meetings and make their case for or against applications of concern to their parish.