Tendring District Council (TDC) has one of the most efficient planning services in Essex - and that's official!

Figures just released put the Council second out of all the Essex local authorities - and TDC has picked up a Government grant of more than £300,000 to recognise its success.

The Council has performed well over the past year in areas including meeting development control targets, house building, plan making and progress on e-planning.

During the past 12 months TDC has determined 75 per cent of all its major applications on time.

It has also hit 84 per cent of minor applications on deadline as well as 92 per cent of householder's proposals within the set period.

David Lines, Leader of TDC, said he was delighted with the progress being made and promised there was more to come.

"It is gratifying to see that a Planning Delivery Grant of £303,063 recognises that the Council has one of the most efficient planning services in the county," he said.

"We will be launching further e-planning initiatives in the next two months to help the public obtain information about planning applications which affect them."

In the Government table of Essex local authorities - which removes the house building element of the grant over which the Council has no control locally - Tendring comes second only behind Chelmsford.