Mr. Dave Walsh:

Yes, but we seek further information on some small cases. Often it is not clear what the issue is. In these cases we provide an opportunity for the applicant or the appellant to elaborate or provide further evidence. We normally allow a period of two or three weeks. We then circulate the material to everyone else in the file and the 18 weeks disappear very quickly. We have a priority system to balance the larger projects, particularly where there is masses of information and we need to make sure people will have time to understand and respond to it. Our system looks at files and balances the competing challenges presented by small cases and ones of more strategic, community, economic or infrastructural significance. We make sure we provide the resources needed to ensure there will be a planning inspector and staff ready to deal with those files, rather leaving all of the hard ones until the end. We have to balance it as we go.