IN YOUR report last week into land searches (‘Land searches STILL taking weeks and weeks as nightmares continue for homeowners’), a spokesperson for Wiltshire Council claimed the delays are a result of unforeseen staffing and IT issues.

It is difficult to tally that explanation with the facts. The Journal’s reports have made it clear these delays are not a short-term problem but have been ongoing for most of this year, and at least intermittently for three to four years before that.

It is particularly lame for the council, having claimed in the pages of the Journal in June that it had recruited extra staff to deal with the backlog, to use the same excuse in October.

The council claimed ‘average’ waiting times of 35 working days in June and 33 working days in last week’s story. However, my own land search took 10 weeks between June and August, and the other search in the chain I am in has been predicted to take a similar length of time. Other people I have spoken to who are buying houses in South Wilts at present have been told to expect a turnaround of around 10 weeks.

So, where does the ‘average’ figure claimed by the council come from and does it reflect the experience an ‘average’ homebuyer can expect?

It is in any case disgraceful as these searches are carried out within a few weeks in most of the country and in a few days in some areas.

Finally, both council statements on this subject have implied this is only a problem in the south. Does that not mean that staffing resources have been misallocated between different parts of Wiltshire and there is, at the very least, a need for a short-term transfer of staffing resource to the south to enable more equity in waiting times?

GERRY LYNCH West Dean