AN action plan to improve Christchurch council's problem-hit planning service will go before councillors on Wednesday.

The update to members of the scrutiny and policy overview committee will hear of major delays to the service last year and efforts made since then to correct the issues.

Staffing shortages, an increase in applications, new IT system and 'resistance to change' from individuals all led to the problems, a report to the committee says.

As previously reported by the Daily Echo, applicants were waiting for more than 10 weeks for their proposals to even be registered, with the council paying an outside body to help shift the backlog.

Members of the scrutiny committee will hear an update on the measures taken to improve the service.

The report outlines the timeline of issues faced last year including the manager leaving, which "affected the stability of the service."

It also details a previous report received by the partnership management last summer, which said: "The service is in the midst of major changes aimed at improving performance and efficiency. In some quarters working practices which have been in place for 20 years are being challenged which is causing some friction from individuals resistant to change."

And the problems could see the service overspending by £100,000 by the end of the year. This is because the money from planning fees cannot be used to fund the additional resources the service has required.

Members will be asked to approve the ongoing work to the planning service.