ENVIRONMENT Minister Freddie Cohen has defended raising commercial planning fees to pay for more staff.

Presenting his department’s objectives during the debate on the 2008 Business Plan, Senator Cohen said that he could not achieve a prompt service and high-quality design without more money. Senator Cohen told the States that he wanted to raise fees for developers working on offices and other commercial buildings so that he could employ more planning officers. ‘I cannot deliver my objectives – high-quality buildings with appropriate materials and design, along with a prompt service – with the resources I currently have,’ he said. ‘We have lost £700,000 from our budget and seven full-time staff. We need more planning officers to deal with the level of applications.’ But Deputy Roy Le Hérissier said fees had been raised before and yet the problem remained. ‘We’ve been here before and this solution was only temporary,’ he said.