TEST Valley Borough Council planning chief Madalene Winter says there were two errors that resulted in Orange getting permission to build a mast at Upper Clatford by default.

Planning councillors rejected an application to construct a mast on Balksbury Hill, and officers were preparing to fight a test case which would have set a precedent.

But last week the council announced the rejection had been overturned because Orange received notification of the decision just one day too late.

Procedures laid down by central government for such applications mean planning authorities must consider and respond to the applicant 56 days from the date the application is received.

Due to administrative errors, however, the receipt was wrongly recorded, which resulted in Orange receiving the decision on the 57th day. It means Orange have permission to build the mast and they intend to do so.

It was a crushing blow for the objectors who were planning to put their case to a public inquiry.

One of the leaders, Mrs Jennifer Johnson, is calling for an independent inquiry.

The council, however, is satisfied the situation arose from two genuine errors and has said no disciplinary action will be taken against any member of staff.

So what exactly happened? According to Mrs Winter the first error happened when the original application from Orange arrived at the council offices by recorded delivery.

It arrived in administration separately from the normal post and was not seen in the planning department until the following day. Unfortunately, there was nothing on the envelope indicating which day it had actually arrived.

The wrong delivery date was then entered into the computer, but this error was spotted when the Orange agents pointed out when the application actually arrived.

But although that error was corrected, the council did not know that by then it was two days out because the computer was wrongly set to count day one plus 56 days. So, when the first error was corrected, it meant the council was still one day out.

The northern area planning committee made its decision on 5 December, and the decision notice was sent the following day by recorded delivery. It arrived the following Monday - a day out of time.

Mrs Winter acknowledges had the decision been faxed on the Friday it would have arrived in time.

She says that in future, whenever an application arrives, it will be made clear on the envelope exactly which day it was delivered.

The computer system will be changed to ensure it counts from day one plus 55 days. And all decision notices will now be faxed when possible.