COUNCIL officers have failed to resolve possible breaches of planning rules more than ten years after they were first raised, new figures reveal.

Brighton and Hove City Council has revealed that its under-fire planning department still has enforcement cases open after more than a decade.

Conservative councillor Robert Nemeth described the figures as “immensely worrying”.

The council’s planning department remains under “high pressure” with temporary arrangements put in place in August 2015 still in operation restricting the level of service developers and residents are receiving.

The department has undergone a significant overhaul in recent years with 47 member of staff, the equivalent of three-quarters of the current team, leaving since April 2013 including nine employees since March. The Argus can reveal that a total of eight exiting employees have shared pay-offs of more than £245,000 since March 2013.

Cllr Nemeth claimed in November that the department was only hitting its targets by getting as many applicants as possible to agree to extending their deadline.

The number of time extensions for applications jumped from three a month to 85 a month in just a year.

Now the Wish ward councillor has uncovered figures showing the council currently has 816 enforcement cases open with 680 opened in 2016/17, which is on course to be the busiest for at least three years.

Almost half of those are referrals regarding large shared houses in the city.

Cllr Nemeth said: “I suspected that the oldest case in the system might be something in the region of one year, and I would have found that somewhat shocking.

“To hear that complaints from over ten years ago are still being investigated is immensely worrying.

“The last scandal was my recent discovery of planning application case lengths being manipulated by forcing applicants to sign extensions, and putting cases on the system later. My concern is that nothing has changed since Labour took office, I don’t know any architects who have actually noticed any improvements.”

A council officer said it was hoped the team could be up to “full force” in the next two to three months with a principal planning officer now appointed to manage the enforcement team and close older cases.