The reasons why building plans get bogged down in the bowels of town hall bureaucracy is ‘cos whatever so-called planners they have on their books devote all their working hours (ie, between 10am and 5pm not including tea breaks) getting obsessed about someone's conservatory extension.

The fact is, as ever, councils don't know the word ‘priority' and spend as much time scrutinising someone's plan to put up a garden gnome as they would a new hypermarket from Lidl.