April 1 has happened, and all five councils are now merged into Somerset Council.

That means a loss of all the individual websites that Somerset residents have been used to. Everything is now accessed through somerset.gov.uk.

This website is up and running but over the next few months and years it will evolve into a much easier place to navigate.

Planning is one of the services that will currently look familiar for you because the four districts' information has been kept separate, mostly because of the huge amount of data that has been stored over the years.

To access our area's planning information you just visit the somerset.gov.uk site and chose the planning, then the South Somerset buttons.

If you are interested in a planning application it is always worth leaving your comments on the website, both town/parish and unitary councillors on planning committees will read through the relevant comments before they make a decision.

In the Chard area, three of your four unitary councillors are on the Somerset South planning committee so you are well represented.

We have to be trained both on planning processes and the local plan in order to sit on this committee and we will always try and do what is best for our communities.

Sometimes there are no planning reasons for turning down an application (if an appeal is launched and the council loses at a planning appeal the council will pay, and that means all of us pay through our council tax).

For all councillors past and present, I think planning is a difficult subject to deal with. 

We are trained but no where near to the level of our planning officers, so we do rely heavily on their expertise.

I always try and be realistic when talking to residents about our ability to go against their advice.

We are all trying to work with rules given to us by national government, so sometimes it doesn’t work out quite as we wish locally, but we have the chance to influence the result.