Argyll and Bute Council has announced a "very successful year" for planning performance.

The planning service in Argyll and Bute won three awards in 2012, including two at the Scottish Government’s prestigious Awards for Quality in Planning.

The Argyll and Bute Woodland and Forestry Strategy won an award in the Development Planning category, and the Craignish Community Plan won a commendation in the Community Involvement category.

The Forestry Strategy also celebrated a UK Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI) Planning Award in the 'Rural area and natural environment' category.

The news came as the Council’s Planning Performance Framework (PPF) was approved by the Planning and Services Licensing Committee (PPSL) for submission to the government.

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The PPF is a means to allow planning authorities in Scotland to indicate performance, customer feedback, achievements and key challenges for the past year by publishing them in a single document.

The service’s overall performance is set within a wider context of quality, workloads, availability of resources and actual outcomes achieved.

The document shows how application approval rate was 96% in 2012.

The planning service has introduced a 'grow our own' policy to hold onto valuable staff by assisting them with career progression.

PPF reports are now to be published on an annual basis and are intended to identify the benefits good planning can bring to an area.

Chair of the PPSL committee, Councillor Sandy Taylor said: "The publication of this PPF report shows how the service has met the challenges set out by the Scottish Government in promoting sustainable economic growth and delivering an improving, quality planning service in these challenging economic times."

A copy of the document is available on the council’s web site.

(IT/GK)