Brighton and Hove City Council chief executive David Panter needs to do much more than carry out a review of his planning department (The Argus, July 10).

He needs to use the Wisdom of Solomon to cut through the bureaucratic mess his department finds itself in, by over-riding some of the more arcane thinking and decision-making.

As Voice of The Argus rightly points out, the big decisions need planning expertise. The simple ones do not. The hopes and dreams of Brighton and Hove's citizens are being fouled up by planning officers who cannot distinguish between simple and complicated decisions in the face of a very high workload.

Much-maligned builders and tradesmen cannot plan their work schedules and, accordingly, lose money. Developers think twice about undertaking projects in the city. Everyone loses but everyone is entitled to compensation through the Local Government Ombudsman. Everyone whose planning decision hasn't even been acknowledged in the eight-week period the Government sets as a minimum is entitled to complain to that office.

Individually, the compensation offered is trivial but, collectively, aggrieved Brighton and Hove householders and others can inflict a painful kick to a council showing signs of incompetence.

The job of any CEO is to lead and, when necessary, "kick butt". If Mr Panter

doesn't kick butt within the next ten working days, I will show the citizens of the city how we can do it for him. Watch this space.

-Gerry Woolf, gerry@gwassoc.dircon.co.uk