Following on from the last post about planning figures in County Clare, Vivien Cummins has sent us some intriguing figures from Kildare, Laois and Carlow. These are the bare numbers for applications received:

As I myself was going through the figures for County Clare I noticed there appeared to be a spike in new applications for early 07. Vivien says there's anecdotal evidence to suggest this may be related to applications for agricultural buildings stemming from a grant scheme - apparently there was a spike in new apps in Laois, Kildare and Carlow last year as well.

Vivien's breakdown of the following figures from Kildare is fascinating:

Says Vivien:

'Analysing statistics is a complex business but:

(i) The number of planning decisions made by Kildare County Council between January and June 2008 fell by 30% from the same period in 2007. Have they made 1/3 of the planning department redundant? Are the same number of staff processing less work?

(ii) The percentage of decisions being made in relation to the number of applications received fell  by 7% when the number of applications being made fell by 20%.

As with Clare County Council it appears that the only applications determined within an eight week period are domestic extensions, modifications to previous planning applications and agricultural buildings.'

Thanks a million Vivien. This is really useful stuff. If anyone else has similar information they feel like sharing, just press send.