Andy Radford, Director of Resources for East Cambridgeshire District Council, said: “A decision was made to delay the publication of certain types of planning documents onto our Public Access system to safeguard personal information provided to the council by applicants and contributors.

“The documents in question relate to certain types of information which may include personal details. Planning documents which do not hold any personal information, like location plans have been uploaded onto the website as normal.

“Members of the public can also still use the Public Access system to add their comments to applications for consideration. However, comments created via this route will not be displayed until further testing has been undertaken. Comments on planning applications are also accepted in written form via letter addressed to the Case Officer or by email to plservices@eastcambs.gov.uk.

“The planning portal is unaffected and therefore those looking to make a planning application electronically can do so as normal.

“We must stress that there are no cost implications to this process and postponing these documents has allowed us to most importantly, keep personal details of residents, applicants and contributors secure. 

“We understand that there are some lessons to be learned from this development including robustly testing system changes before they are put into the public domain. 

“Following a data transfer and testing over the weekend, normal service is expected to resume on the week commencing 16th January.

“If members of the public require access to planning documents which are currently not available online, please contact the Case Officer for the application and they will do their best to assist.”