Permitted development rights - changes to planning regulations

WAG is currently consulting on changes to permitted development rights - these rights afford automatic planning permission for small scale development projects. For instance householders will be able to do a lot more to their properties without the need for planning permission. This is sensible as a a lot of the work of a Planning Department is taken up dealing with small scale often domestic extensions and alterations. Powys Council in a report to a recent Board appears to welcome these changes, which is fair enough. The report suggests that the workload of a typical Planning Department will reduce by 25% as a result. But nowhere in the report is any mention as to whether the reduced workload will result in either staff savings or redeploying of staff to undertake more meaningful work. It is clear that planning authorities have wasted much time and effort in dealing with minutiae at the expense of taking care to ensure that major developments of real interest and value to the wider public are considered properly. What will the 25% extra capacity within the Planning Department at Powys be now doing? Hopefully delivering a better service to Powys. But isn't it time that Powys councillors look to saving money too?