DORSET Council has announced cuts to its planning services in a bid to alleviate pressure on the department, amid a huge increase in planning applications as well as additional demand for local land searches.

Local land searches are a requirement of most mortgage companies - but delays of up to 13 weeks are being reported in the county, as demand has almost doubled amid the current property boom, caused by an influx of city dwellers combined with the stamp duty holiday.

Dorset Council has been carrying out a significant project to transfer planning records from the six former borough and district councils into one system.

Estate agents and property solicitors criticised the timing of the moves and say the delay is causing home sales to fall through, with cash buyers who do not require a mortgage at an advantage.

It comes as the council's planning teams are also dealing with increased number of planning applications amid a national rise in people carrying out changes to their homes.

As a result, cuts have been made to non-mandatory planning services, bringing an end to the practise of sending letters to neighbours when a planning application is lodged, as well as changing the way notices are published, and automating lists for parish councillors, in a bid to free up officers' time to focus on planning applications.

The council is urging residents to be patient and not to chase planning applications to avoid adding to the workload.

"The construction industry has seen a huge surge during the pandemic," a council spokesman said. "Homeowners with more cash in their pockets than normal are considering extensions or changes to their homes because working from home has become the future.

"Last month planning applications rose in every English region compared to July 2020. This follows a bumper start to the year where February saw an amazing 25 per cent increase in applications (compared to the same month in 2020) across the country. Throughout 2020 there was a 36 per cent increase in the number of applications, compared to 2019. This activity has led to a huge demand on Dorset Council’s planning services."

When the council formed in April 2019 from former district, borough and county councils there were six different planning teams, working on different systems. Work started on moving these teams into one and to start transferring 47 years of records held by each area onto a new system.

In spring 2020 a new team had been formed and areas that needed more support had been identified. Four out of six areas have now been transferred, with the next planned for early October. People have been recruited to fill vacant posts and teams are using the new joined-up system.

"Another area that has seen a huge increase in demand is land searches and charges," the council's spokesman added. "The stamp duty holiday encouraged people to move home to new areas to give a better life balance. This national incentive to help the property market has meant that the number of searches needed to be carried out has almost doubled."

There are some areas that are not seeing such delays. The Building Control service have been plan checking and visiting sites throughout the pandemic to ensure that buildings are constructed to national building regulations. They have filled vacant positions and have also recruited two apprentices who will start their building control degree in September.

Cllr David Walsh, Dorset Council’s portfolio holder for planning said: “We ask our residents to bear with us, we know it is frustrating, but these delays are being felt across the country and it out of our control. It is incredibly busy, and we are working on all applications in date order. So, I ask for people not to chase their application, by phone or email. Doing this only takes up officer time that could be spent on progressing work.

“We have kept fellow councillors, town and parish councils and property agents informed of the situation by newsletters and emails and will continue to keep them up to date.”