Councillor Sam Al-Hamdani, Liberal Democrat shadow cabinet member for housing and homelessness, has called on Oldham Council to extend the time for residents to respond on any current applications, as the online system for responses has repeatedly gone off line in recent days due to a systems upgrade.

With larger developments often attracting hundreds of comments using the online portal, and Oldham Council encouraging people to use the web to contact them as much as possible, such downtime creates a major issue for residents who wish to make their views known – either to complain or to support a proposal.

Councillor Al-Hamdani said: “Upgrading the systems is great, and I look forward to having a more robust system in place. However, we need to make sure that while we’re in this period, residents don’t get short-changed.

“At the national level, I and my fellow councillors are fighting tooth and nail against changes to the planning system which would remove residents’ voices from the planning process. Locally, during what should be a temporary issue, we need to make sure we do the same.”

Councillor Al-Hamdani has written to the head of planning asking them to review any open applications and ensure that if the planning portal has been down for any significant amount of time, the deadline for comments is extended.