We are pleased to confirm that we have been able to resume our land charge and search service.

This service will enable property searches in the pipeline, and received since lockdown, to be fully completed which in turn helps with the completion of property transactions.

Cllr Mike Morey, Cabinet Member for Infrastructure, Environment and Culture, said: A number of you have lobbied hard for officers to be able to work on a particular planning function and we are now able to reinstate the land charge and search service.

“Unfortunately, while elements of the land charge service could be carried out remotely during lockdown certain tasks could not be fully completed without access to a number of paper records held in the Town Hall.

“Following HR advice and risk assessments, I am pleased to say that officers can begin working fully on these cases and we have also provided some additional capacity to accelerate clearing the backlog.”