Council: Take care with conservatory applications

A council has advised residents seeking planning permission for a conservatory or other home improvement to take care when filling out their application form.

Each year, around 660 applications are held up in Devon due to people submitting them with missing information.

Devon council has advised that applicants should be meticulous when filling out their forms in order to speed up the approval process and has introduced new simplified documentation to help reduce complications.

"We understand that customers want their applications dealt with quickly, which is why we are eager to address the issue by looking at how we can improve things our end," portfolio holder for community and spatial planning Des Brailey told the newspaper.

"However, to help speed things up even more, we are asking customers and their agents to double check their forms, to make sure theyre filled out correctly.

"That way, we can get to work on them straight away, to keep our response times as short as possible."

It is unclear what the council would have made of the story of a Hertfordshire couple who recently hit the headlines for transforming their home into a zoo which included a meercat enclosure in their conservatory.