PLANNERS from Fare-ham have earnedspecial praise in Parlia-ment.

Planning minister Keith Hill read a list of 39 local authorities whose planning authorities are seen as high performers.

He said: "Over the last year, 39 standard planning authorities were found to have made significant improvements in performance with outstanding improvements in a number of cases. I congratulate them all."

The target for all local planning authorities in England is to handle 60 per cent of major applications within 13 weeks.

Fareham's figure is about 93 per cent.

Civic leader Councillor Sean Woodward said: "We've been working extremely hard over the last couple of years to improve our planning service and we're now one of the top 39 in the country. We make good planning decisions and we make them quickly."