Ceredigion County Council has defended the number of planning decisions made against the recommendation of officers, despite the Welsh Government saying the county “significantly skews” the Welsh average performance.

The Welsh Government’s All Wales Planning Annual Performance Report claimed that Ceredigion Council was responsible for more than a quarter of all decisions that went against planning officer recommendations, with 45 out of 175 across Wales coming from Ceredigion.

But a council spokesperson said that in terms of the total number of planning applications the authority deals with, the number which go against planning officer advice is “only a small percentage”.

The planning report for the Welsh Government was critical of the council for the number of planning decisions made against planning officer advice, which it said was a common occurrence in Ceredigion.

It said: “As with previous years, one local planning authority significantly skews the all-Wales average for this performance indicator.

“Ceredigion County Council accounted for 45 of 175, or over a quarter, of all overturn decisions in the reporting period.

“The removal of this extreme outlier would reduce the Wales average of 6.4 per cent.”

Figures for the period between November 2014 and September 2018, Ceredigion Council was responsible for 166 out of 706 decisions in Wales that went against planning officer advice.

However, a council spokesperson defended the authority and said that councillors who made decisions against officer advice were asked to justify going against the advice and policy, with those reasons minuted at meetings.

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