PLEASE allow me to correct one error of fact in your front page lead story last week (October 13); and then address some quirks of perception. As a matter of fact, West Devon Borough Council?s planners received the Tavistock Town Council?s application to replace the town hall ceiling using methods other than traditional lath and plaster on the 22nd not the 2nd August. Accordingly, the eight-week target time for determining applications had not expired when your story appeared, let alone when Tavistock Town Council passed their judgement on the alleged delay. As to the issues of perception, although we determine around 80% of Listed Building applications within eight weeks, those that require an input from English Heritage sometimes take longer. Broadly speaking, the more important the building, the more likely it is to take longer. Assuming that Tavistock Town Council considers our town hall to be an important building and given that the ceiling started falling apart in 2001, your readers may think it a bit rich for Tavistock Town Council to begrudge our planning team the time that it needs to deal thoroughly and exhaustively with an application that they very well know stands prima facie to be refused. Some local planning authorities could have met the eight-week target by issuing an almost immediate refusal on the strong grounds that the materials and methods proposed failed to conserve or enhance the character of the Listed Building; this would leave Tavistock Town Council with the alternatives of a lengthy appeal versus doing the repair traditionally. West Devon Borough Council is, in effect, being lambasted by Tavistock Town Council for trying to do better than that. A bit below the belt I think! Roger Mathew, Chairman of West Devon Borough Council?s planning and licensing committee