A Somerset council is set to spend £140,000 on agency staff because its current planning team cannot cope with demand.

Sedgemoor District Council has seen “a peak in caseload” over the last year, with its existing staff struggling to keep pace with the number of planning applications which have been put forward.

The council has said its planning staff are “incredibly stretched”, with a number of vacant positions not being filled.

To remedy the situation, the council is bringing in more agency staff over a 12-month period.

Planning office Claire Pearce laid out the situation in a report published ahead of an executive committee meeting on Wednesday (June 5).

In the last 12 months, the council handed nearly 2,000 planning applications – ranging from everything to small extensions to a house to detailed proposals for hundreds of new homes.

While the council managed to deal with the majority of these, this was partly as a result of planning officers being able to agree for more time with the applicants.

Ms Pearce said: “Our performance targets met rely significantly on agreed extensions of time, although this in itself is reflective of the team’s willingness to work with applicants or agents to find solutions.”

On top of this, the council investigated around 400 enforcement cases (where legal action can be taken against people in breach of planning permission) – of which only four moved to a full-blown prosecution.

Council officers are also tasked with chasing developers for infrastructure funding (known as the community infrastructure levy or CIL). There are 236 active cases of this kind, of which around one in three (30 per cent) are behind schedule.

Ms Pearce said Sedgemoor’s planning caseload was “the highest of all south west local authorities” when measured in terms of the number of cases per officer.

She said: “Due to the high application numbers. and specifically the tranche of major applications, the application backlog is increasing, and staff have one of the highest caseloads in the south west.”

Agency staff were previously brought in for three months, focusing on tourist hotspots and matters relating to the construction of Hinkley Point C – but further support is still needed.

Ms Pearce said: “Based on costs established in the market, it is estimated that a further budget of £140,000 is required for a one-year period.”

The government sets targets for the number of homes approved by local authorities, with an overall aim of 300,000 new homes being delivered each year across the UK by the mid-2020s.

The council’s Local Plan – which sets out where housing and employment land  should be provided up to 2032 – was formally approved in February.