LANCASTER City Council's cabinet has been asked to look again at how it wants to restructure its planning services department.

The council's internal affairs review board voted on Tuesday to 'refer back' a decision to change the department structure which, board members believe, would be more expensive and provide fewer staff.

Cllr Ian Barker, Labour's lead member on the review board, said: "We clearly showed that their new structure was more expensive - perhaps by as much as £42,000 in the first two years and about £10,000 a year after that.

"We showed that it had an extra layer of management and fewer people to do the work of processing planning applications -- but one of the clear objects of the change was supposed to be dealing with the volume of work.

"I hope the cabinet will accept the advice of the review board, save some money for the council tax payer and provide a better planning service to applicants."