HOUSE sales in Weymouth and west Dorset are collapsing and developments are being put on hold due to problems in the local council planning department which have been labelled a ‘crisis’.

Hundreds of prospective homeowners and developers face losing huge sums after problems with the under-resourced department.

Huge delays have beset the overstretched planning administration team at West Dorset District Council and Weymouth and Portland Borough Council as they have become overwhelmed with a backlog of planning applications from developers and land survey requests from homebuyers.

In the most extreme cases, it is taking applications more than 17 weeks to be processed, causing potential sales to collapse and long delays to developments, costing hundreds of thousands of pounds.

Estate agents, solicitors and homebuyers have dubbed the situation ‘a nightmare’ and said it is collapsing country-wide chains.

With mortgage offers only valid for a certain period of time, this is halting sales and seeing buyers lose any money paid out as well as their property.

The councils have vowed to invest further resources to resolve problems.

A warning posted on dorsetforyou.com said delays would continue for several weeks. It asks applicants to keep contact with the office to a minimum.

Mike Harvey, of Nantes Solicitors, said: “From any other authority, you get it back within three days.

“For West Dorset it is taking twelve weeks and for Weymouth and Portland they can’t even give us an estimate of how long it will take. It is causing a crisis.

“It holds up chains which go to London, the north of England, all over the country.

“It’s becoming a nightmare.

“It causes us a huge amount of extra work.”

A resident who is in the process of buying a house contacted the Echo to say: “We understood the local search would take a few days but we actually waited six weeks. I think we were one of the lucky ones as we understand people are waiting a lot longer.

“We were told the person responsible for doing the search at the council was off sick and this was holding up sales throughout Weymouth and Portland. If someone is sick that’s fair enough but I find it crazy the council doesn’t have someone else to do this job in their absence.”

Anthony Goss, senior branch manager at the Weymouth Palmer Snell Estate Agents, said: “The biggest issue we are having is to do with trying to get searches back.

“It used to take two or three weeks, it’s taking about 16 weeks now. This means that where we would normally have a sale and exchange contracts within eight or 10 weeks, it’s now taking four months plus.

“It’s horrendous.

“We’ve had sales falling through, especially when they are in a chain of sales, and especially if someone is moving into the area from outside, they probably won’t have the same issues but because of the delay, someone will pull out and the whole chain collapses.

“I have had people who have lost buyers for their homes because of how long it’s taking.

“It is frustrating beyond belief for everyone, we can’t believe it is so bad.

“Our searches are taking longer than anywhere in the country.”

Ross Fisher, owner and director of Weymouth-based architects Fisher & Associates, said he felt the officers needed more help to deal with the situation.

He said: “We have got several applications in at the moment taking an excessive amount of time. They are taking far too long to register.

“We do have issues trying to relay back to our clients why it is taking so long, but we are stuck in the middle, so we do sympathise with the situation.

“The planning officers, which are our lifeline, need some help from the top. They need to be getting more help and funding to help them do the job properly, and that doesn’t seem to be happening at the moment.”

COUNCIL AIMING TO INVEST MORE CASH IN DEPARTMENT

CLLR Ian Gardner, executive portfolio holder for planning at West Dorset District Council, pledged the councils would address the issue by investing more resources into the department.
Cllr Gardner said: “Due to the number of land charge searches and planning applications, the councils are operating with a significant backlog.
“We are currently processing searches in approximately 10 weeks (land charges) and have a four-week delay in validating planning applications. “Additional resources have been put into place to help address this backlog, but it will take some time to reduce the existing volume of enquiries and applications.
“We apologise for the delay and the inevitable inconvenience this will cause. Please be assured that we are seeking to deal with enquiries/applications as swiftly as possible.
“The councils will be considering longer-term improvement plans to the land charges and planning services, and it is recognised that these plans will take time to implement.
“We realise that customers want to know what progress is being made, but we ask that contact is kept to a minimum so that we can focus on processing the work. We will continue to keep dorsetforyou.com updated with progress and would like to thank customers for their understanding.”