DROITWICH Spa's MP has taken steps to try to speed up approval of the South Worcestershire Development Plan.

Mid Worcestershire MP, Sir Peter Luff, joined West Worcestershire MP Harriett Baldwin to meet with the country’s chief planning inspector.

The pair met with Sir Michael Pitt in Westminster on January 30 and asked him to ensure that the development plan process was not being hit by delays caused by the Inspectorate.

Both MPs warned the inspector that delays were slowing locally agreed development while triggering speculative developments and disagreements with developers in other sites.

Sir Michael said that local planning inspectors were working hard to approve local plans as quickly as possible and that he had recruited 50 extra staff to ensure that a bottleneck of local plans across the country get approved as quickly as possible.

He agreed that developers have an incentive to delay local plans because they can use the extra time to apply for permission on other sites they have optioned.

Sir Peter said: "We impressed upon Sir Michael the damage being done to local confidence in the democratic process by the unacceptable delays in approving our local plan and he clearly understood the point. I hope our action will bring forward the date at which the local plan is approved and proper democratic control is restored to planning in south Worcestershire.”