A GOVERNMENT survey of planning authorities shows that the Yorkshire Dales is the quickest of England's eight national parks when it comes to making decisions over planning applications - and approves most schemes.

The statistics, published by the Department for Transport, Local Government and the Regions, for the January to March period of this year measures the performance of all England's local planning authorities against the Government's eight-week target for the determination of planning applications.

They show that in this period, the Yorkshire Dales planners determined 173 applications, 72 percent of them within the eight-week target period, compared with the national average of 62 percent for all local planning authorities and better than the seven other national parks.

Peter Watson, the Dales Head of Planning commented: "These figures are very heartening and show that are we reaching a good standard nationally. However, there is still room for improvement and we have a range of measures planned."

"The figures also show that 95 percent of applications for planning permission to this Authority are approved, the joint highest amongst the national psssarks, and higher than our three local district councils.

"This shows that the level of service provided by our planners, who invest many hours working with applicants, pays dividends and ensures that applications for planning permission to this Authority are of the highest standards, paving the way for their approval."

The survey comes as a big boost to Dales planners as a result of a major overhaul of their procedures. Until recently, the park was regularly condemned for being too slow to make decisions - and for rejecting too many applications.