Councillors voted in October last year to remove all public responses to planning applications from East Renfrewshire Council’s (ERC) online planning portal.

ERC planning officers claimed in the report delivered to elected members that the move would be inline with around 50 per cent of local authorities in Scotland.

However statistics have come to light indicating that of 32 councils in the country, just nine do not publish representations online.

Uplawmoor campaigner Aileen Jackson uncovered the inaccuracy after conducting her own round-robin poll of local authorities in Scotland.

Community councillors have also spoken out about their difficulties in dealing with the new arrangements, which requires residents to physically attend council offices to view responses to planning applications.

This comes after Tory councillor Stewart Miller abstained from voting on crucial planning decisions earlier this month, saying: “I simply do not think I am informed enough to make a decision.” The report, shown to councillors on October 8 last year, pointed out that there is no obligation on planning authorities to display objectors’ details online and the practice of doing so at other planning authorities across the country is split approximately “50/50.” However, that does not equate with information obtained by Ms Jackson who discovered just nine — including East Renfrewshire — out of 32 local authorities do not publish representations online.

Neilston Community Council (NCC) chairman John Scott was highly critical of the new system at the group’s last meeting, branding it “undemocratic” and saying it “discriminates against residents” after pointing out that it would be difficult for someone in full time work or living with disabilities to attend the council offices.

However this week he spoke of his personal experiences dealing with the new system, describing it as “farcical”.

Speaking to The News he said: “Here we now have a farcical situation where a developer can submit an application with glowing accounts of how wonderful the proposed development will be, and no doubt welcomed by everyone, and this will be available to view online, but any professional criticism of the technical reality of the impact of the development on neighbouring properties will quietly have its very existence denied to the public by being classed as a “representation” and suppressed. “In the spirit of openness and transparency which public authorities are keen to boast about, can such a situation really be justified?

“It would normally have taken me about 15 minutes to read the document at home by accessing the website. It took me a total of 45 minutes through fairly heavy traffic just to drive to Spiersbridge and back.

“Altogether the total time spent was over an hour, and my carbon footprint increased by an unknown amount. How someone dependent on public transport would have managed I can’t imagine. The reasons for removing online representations remain unclear, varying from compliance with data protection to lack of staff time, neither of which appear to be borne out. Regrettably, the decision hardly serves to increase the public’s trust and confidence in local authority officials.” A spokeswoman for East Renfrewshire Council said: “There is no legal requirement to show representations. They are not one of the documents that have to be in the planning register and open to public inspection.

“A survey went round heads of planning from councils across Scotland and the findings showed that around 50 per cent of respondees did not have representations on their online planning portal.

“Of the 25 councils who replied 13 did not show representations online and 12 said they did. Of course, since this survey was undertaken it may be the case that some authorities have changed their practice.”