A COUNCIL office blunder has heightened controversy over a senior Wyre Forest district councillor's planning application.

Bewdley town council has recommended refusal for the second time this year of an application by district councillors Frank and Mavis Baillie to build a house at Telford Drive, Bewdley.

But this time objections grounded on worries about the stability of the site and access will come with an extra sting after revelations it was originally destined for "fast-track" approval.

Controversy broke out at the town council's planning meeting on Monday when town and district councillor Louise Edginton said she was "perturbed" to learn the application by the vice-chairman of Wyre Forest District Council and his wife had been marked previously for a decision under planning officers' delegated powers.

This would have placed it among applications which are considered non-controversial and not requiring scrutiny by the district planning (development control) committee.

It is understood that chairman of the planning committee Stephen Clee moved quickly to alert planning officers of what they described as "a mistake" and to have the application removed from this category but Mrs Edginton made clear it remained a matter of concern to her.

Moving a recommendation to reject the plan on an "inappropriate" site she said: "It worries me that a case which we objected to in March was not to go through an open planning meeting and I am even more perturbed by who the applicants are."

Councillor Tony Clay said: "I am stunned because it is a very sensitive site. It is a skyline development."

District Council planning chief Jake Berriman said the delegated powers listing was "a mistake" that was immediately put right when it was realised the applicants were councillors and that it was inappropriate for an officers' decision.

He said 70 per cent of applications were listed for officers' decision and 50 per cent survived to by-pass consideration by the committee.

Councillor Baillie said he had no idea his "normal and straightforward" application had been put down for officers' decision until he saw the list.

"It has been treated by planning officers as they think fit with no intention by us to exert influence because we are councillors. I would not be foolish enough to engage in something that was not right."