BROMSGROVE District Council has been served a designation notice on its planning service by the Department for Communities and Local Government.

This means that a major developer will now have the choice of either the council’s planning department or the Planning Inspectorate making a decision on an application.

The notice has been served as the council was among the slowest authorities nationally, according to government targets, in terms of dealing with major planning applications.

Councillor Kit Taylor, portfolio holder for planning at Bromsgrove District Council, said: “As we have said before and as we told the government, this council is transforming its services to make them more efficient and effective, with our customer at the heart of everything we do.

“Planning is no exception and instead of worrying about arbitrary targets, we sat with our customers and robustly worked through their applications which resulted in a higher rate of approval rather than them going round and round in the system because of unresolved issues.

“This has lead to brilliant feedback from our customers and I hope their experiences will mean that future applicants choose to work with our dedicated, experienced and committed team of planners.

“I am regarding this as a ripple not a wave in the progress of Bromsgrove."