NORTH-East councils are dealing with more planning applications at greater speeds, new figures show.

The information, released by the Office for the Deputy Prime Minister, show that local authorities dealt with planning applications two per cent faster in 2002/3 than in the previous year.

In the North-East 5,400 planning decisions were made between January and March this year.

Of these, 92 per cent were granted and 66 per cent of these were decided within eight weeks. A total of 86 per cent of decisions were made within 13 weeks.

Middlesbrough Council has been praised for improving its performance on last year and Planning Minister Keith Hill hopes to meet with the authority to see how it achieved it.

He said: "I am encouraged by these figures, which reflect the hard work of planners. A faster, more efficient planning service benefits everyone in the community, whether their application is for a home extension or a new hospital.

"Authorities like Wychavon, Middlesbrough and North Wiltshire have turned around performance and improved both speed and quality by rethinking their processes.

"I have invited these authorities to meet me so I can learn about how it is done."

Nationally, despite an increase to 167,000 applications, local planning authorities gave a decision on 43 per cent of major planning applications within 13 weeks.

A further 54 per cent of minor planning applications and 72 per cent of other applications were decided within eight weeks.

Figures for Cleveland showed that in the year ending in March, 96 per cent of planning applications were granted in Hartlepool, 94 per cent in Redcar and Cleveland, 93 per cent in Middlesbrough and 94 in Stockton.

In County Durham, Sedgefield had the highest percentage of applications granted,with 97 per cent. Durham had the lowest figure with 91 per cent.