Ernie Clark. Hilperton Division, Wiltshire Council.

WC - where everybody matters, so long as they agree with the council.

A consultation carried out by Wiltshire Council, as part of a review of development control, asked parish councils if they were happy with the new 'call-in' procedure for planning applications.

Under the WC system, only the Unitary Councillor for the area concerned can ask for an application to go to the relevant area planning committee in response to local concerns - parish councils can make representations but don't have the ability to call-in.

Thirty-eight parish and town councils answered the question on call-in within the consultation. Thirty-one said they were unhappy with the current arrangements, two approved of it, and five had no opinion.

Despite the concern amongst parishes that they should have more say over the way applications are dealt with, the Conservative administration has decided not to make more than limited changes. Obviously, not everybody matters ...

In my opinion, the moral way forward is to return call-in rights to parish councils, but there is little chance of this happening until after the next WC election in 2013.