Council planners are the most understaffed, underpaid, overworked, abused and depressed workers in Britain, which is a cause for concern because they are responsible for creating and determining the quality of environments we live in, according to a panel of experts at the Hay festival. Townsend said she had spent a month in a UK planning department and “it was the tiniest, most understaffed, most underfunded, most depressed group of people I have ever worked with”. Davenport, who once shared office space with Wiltshire county council planners, said: “I always remember one poor girl, she was almost weeping on a daily basis because she was being shouted at constantly. They’ve had seven years of training and they are so underpaid and poorly respected. Then fund council planning properly | Ben Rogers Read moreHe said it was normally a junior member of the department saying no to planning applications because that was quicker and easier than saying yes.

Source: The Guardian May 25, 2018 10:53 UTC