Oxford planners -- last year labelled the worst performers in the country -- have beaten a Government target for completing applications.

Last year, staff from the city council's planning department were summoned to a meeting with Government planning minister Lord Falconer, who had earlier threatened to strip the authority of its planning powers unless it dealt with applications more quickly.

A performance table showed the council to be the slowest in the country to process applications at the start of last year.

Now new figures show that planning control manager, Roy Thompson, who was appointed four months ago, has been successful in getting staff to work more efficiently.

Last month, figures showed that 68 per cent of applications were completed within eight weeks, compared to 20 per cent in the first quarter of last year.

The Government's target is to process 65 per cent of applications in eight weeks. Lord Falconer said Oxford should be tackling 65 per cent of all applications in eight weeks by March, when he is due to meet staff again.

Cllr John Goddard, executive board member for planning, said: "We told Lord Falconer that improving the performance of the planning service was a top priority for the administration and I am delighted with these statistics.

"It is especially pleasing to see the December result, which exceeded Government targets.

"I know there is still more work to be done, but I am confident that when we meet Lord Falconer in March we will have maintained or even improved on our December performance."

Mr Thompson said the establishment of a team to deal with fast-track applications had helped to improve performance.

Fast-track applications include developments of up to five houses, or commercial schemes of up to 550 square metres.

He added: "All planning staff have worked extremely hard to clear the backlog, speed up the processing of applications and maintain the quality of decision-making."

A recruitment drive has brought the department up to full strength. There are 15 planning officers, seven support staff and three enforcement officers working from Ramsay House in St Ebbe's.

Officers have also been given greater delegated powers so they can deal with simple applications instead of councillors, and a new computer system has been installed.