NORTH Wiltshire District Council is set to look into the way the public view planning applications following a file from an application going missing.

Although there is no evidence the page was taken by a member of the public and could have been mislaid, the council's overview and scrutiny committee, on January 20, said the procedure for gaining access to applications might need to become stricter.

David Colcomb, of Roundway Park, Devizes, had written a letter of objection over the proposed creation of the records office at the cattle market in Cocklebury Road, Chippenham.

But his letter, as well as an objection letter from Transport 2000, had been removed from the application and he was required to send in another.

Mr Colcomb said: "A good friend of mine, who worked for British Rail, was a chartered surveyor and when I said to him about this he said files being removed was completely unheard of."

But councillors protected their procedures, saying different councils' planning departments work in varying ways.

They added they would like to keep the planning process as transparent as possible for the general public with Councillor John Thomson saying the council should hasten the transfer of planning applications to the Internet.

Councillor Ann Davis said the cost of installing better observation would be too great.

"Supposing this happens once in a blue moon it would cost an awful lot to install this sort of high observation," she said.

Development control team leader, Charles Pescod, said Mr Colcomb had highlighted a problem.

"If a determined person comes into reception they could remove a file. What I would say to members is it's risk assessment," he said.

"We are dealing with 3,000 applications a year and the amount of times those files are accessed by the members or the public is considerable.

"But I would be able to count on one hand how many times this has happened since I have been here."

The overview and scrutiny committee recommended the North Wiltshire District Council executive committee examine public access to planning applications and possible supervision.