THE first ever public planning meeting was held yesterday .

. .

before an audience of one.

Meetings have been opened up to the public in an attempt to make the process more transparent, but there were more planning officers than members of the public present.

Panel chairman and Assistant Planning Minister Richard Dupré said that he had hoped that more people would be there.

‘I was disappointed with the number of people,’ he said.

‘We expected to have people here to ask questions.’ Chris Renouf was the only member of the public to attend the meeting.

He said that he was not there to hear the outcome of any particular application, but to find out how the system worked so that he could voice his opposition to a future application.

Having watched the meeting, he said that he thought the system helpful.

‘Normally people send in a letter of objection and don’t hear any more until the result of the application,’ he said.

‘Now they see the process working.’