A number of measures have been taken. We have improved the management structures in the board significantly. We are in the process of increasing the membership of the board from ten members to 12. There will be 12 members in place from 1 January next. We have engaged 49 additional experienced planners on a fee per case basis - in other words, outside the board's complement of permanent staff. Most of these would have come from the UK which was necessary because, as many people know, there has been a shortage of trained planners to cope with the increase in development pressures in recent years. Most of the 49 additional planners are employed by us on a fee per case basis. They deal with the smaller type of appeal.
In addition, we have employed seven planning consultancy firms which include 17 professionals planners - most of which are UK-based - to do the reports on the larger cases. We would pay a larger fee to them. They were recruited on a competitive tender basis. We have also extended our recruitment drive overseas. For example, we have taken on three planners from South Africa in the past few months. We are steadily getting our staff levels up to our authorised numbers. As I said, one of the exceptional measures, paying a fee per case, is proving effective. It has taken quite a while, between negotiations with staff interests, advertising, training and so forth, to get all these measures in place. In the past three months they are showing very significant improvements. For example, in the past two months the volume of cases being decided by the board is up 20% on last year and the number of inspectors' reports is up 30% on last year. Again with the additional board members to be put in place from 1 January, we can be confident that the board's performance will improve very significantly next year. AgainI would be hoping that we are over the worstof it.