THE chairman of a Dorset parish council has slammed the local authority responsible for planning application decisions.

Councillor Alf Bush, chairman of Lytchett Matravers Parish Council, wrote of the "dismay and frustration" over Dorset Council's planning performance.

He said there is an "increasing perception" from the parish council and residents that the local view is of no importance to officers.

In the letter to Cllr David Walsh, Dorset Council portfolio holder for planning, Cllr Bush said the issue centred around the "strategic policy approach" rather than delays in dealing with applications, which were understood given the pandemic and staff shortages.

The concerns raised by the village representative said concerns fell into four main areas: green belt, climate emergency, infrastructure, and the role of parish council and community planning and the by-passing thereof.

The first three areas cover themes shared widely across rural communities in the county as both Dorset Council and BCP Council undergo the process of creating new Local Plans – policy documents which will be used to guide future development.

Cllr Bush said the parish council should be allowed to be proactive on proposals for Lytchett Matravers rather than reactive.

Lytchett Matravers adopted a neighbourhood plan – a more grassroots policy document which provides a vision for a community and must be considered when assessing applications – as recently as 2017.

However, Cllr Bush said the parish council was looking to refresh its neighbourhood plan given experiences in recent years.

His letter, sent back in December and still not replied to as of late January, said: "The clear question is, what is our role in the democratic process?

"The parish council is not an expert planning team, we do not have the resources of planning consultants to aid us in every application and we certainly do not have the resources for judicial reviews.

"The parish council represents the community and is the foundation of the local democratic process. There needs to be formal recognition of that status and an integration of all parish councils with a clear elevated role above that of resident. We need to return to the principles of the Localism Act."

The Daily Echo contacted Dorset Council for comment on January 25 and still had not received a response as of February 17.