Environment Minister Glenn Blakeney came under fire from his opposite number for Government's "blatant" lack of commitment to following the planning process.

Mr. Blakeney trumpeted achievements in processing planning applications and building permits despite staff shortages in the planning department last year as he talked the House of Assembly through its annual budget.

However, Shadow Minister Cole Simons ticked Government off for setting a bad example by going ahead with projects without planning permission on a number of occasions then applying retroactively – such as at Dockyard for the new cruise ship pier and Bailey's Bay for a road.

Mr. Simons said he'd learned the same thing happened with the controversy-mired new Police station and court building in Hamilton.

"Twenty five to thirty percent of the building has been erected but they did not have a building permit until late February 2009. These are blatant examples of Government's lack of commitment to enforcing its own planning laws," he complained.

And, claimed Mr. Simons, the amount of time it took last year to process planning applications was too lengthy, with the time from an application being submitted to a permit being issued standing at around eight months.

"People are flouting the planning laws left right and centre. A number of people are just going ahead and developing their properties without the proper approvals," claimed Mr. Simons.

"I think these people are violating our laws out of sheer frustration. People need to get their house going and to have to wait eight months is way, way too long."

Outlining the $4.3 million budget for the Department of Planning, Mr. Blakeney said there are six vacant posts out of 42 in total. He hopes these will be filled by July.

He went on to explain that the enforcement and searches section had a tough time during the last budget year.

"Due to a resignation the (section) lost the services of the Assistant Enforcement Officer, half its technical staff resources, during the second quarter of the financial year resulting in the need to establish priorities in the investigation of complaints and the delivery of the property search services."

The Minister said in the short term, duties were reassigned and despite the staff shortage the enforcement section completed 110 property searches and processed 135 complaints during 2008.

Two consultants were engaged in the development applications section last year as a result of the staff shortages, providing a total of 25 hours per week, offsetting "extensive leave approval" for two permanent employees.

The work of the section was supplemented by 332 hours of overtime from April to December last year, and Mr. Blakeney said he was pleased the backlog of pending planning applications had been reduced.

He said the building control section achieved a full complement of staff during the year but 346 hours of overtime were needed to deliver inspection services as the department endeavoured to provide a 24-hour response time to inspection requests.

He said available data for the last budget last year showed a "dramatic improvement in performance" in processing building permit applications to an average 6.4 week wait – an improvement of 1.6 weeks on the previous year.

He listed the main factors in achieving this as a recently-introduced practice of accepting permit applications only after planning permission has been granted, and the introduction of vetting procedures "that virtually eliminate the acceptance of applications that do not meet the basic submission requirements."