WEST Somerset Council has been ranked number one in the country amongst district and national park authorities for determining smaller scale and household planning applications.

From April 2012 to the end of March this year, the council determined 99 per cent of 'other' applications within the Government's eight-week target time, resulting in its planning team coming first out of 338 councils.

And the success under the leadership of planning manager Andrew Goodchild is not limited to small-scale development.

For minor applications the team was ranked third in the country, while for major applications it came 44th.

But in the South West region it came first, first and second in the three categories.

The achievement is a massive turnaround for an authority that in the last four years has gone from being one of the poorer performing planning teams in the country to being the best in a core area of its business.

Lead member for planning Cllr Anthony Trollope-Bellew said: "The results for the past year are fantastic and a real achievement for the team.

"I am really proud of the team and the efforts that they have made, not only n terms of our speed of decision-making but also the level of customer service that they continue to provide."

Cllr Trollope-Bellew said the council was currently working on improving its guidance to developers so that it could be even more confident of achieving high quality development in the district.

Planning committee chairman Cllr Tony Knight added his praise to the achievement.

"At a time when budget savings with the team have been made I am delighted that we are offering such a quality service to our communities," he said.

"We know that developers gain confidence from speed and certainty in decisions and I hope that the efforts of the team mean local people and investors considering projects in our district can move forward with confidence.

"Clearly planning is a sensitive subject and not all development is welcome, but good projects where advice from the planning team is incorporated can expect to be supported."