Leeds City Council’s planning department does not have enough money to carry out all of its duties, a senior figure within the authority has claimed.

David Feeney, the council’s chief planning officer, also said a backlog of applications and confusing messages from the government over reforms were among the service’s biggest hurdles.

It comes amid a £16m hole in the council’s finances, which has led to curbs on non-essential spending.

Local authorities are responsible for processing and deciding on all planning applications.

But a post-Covid rise in planning applications and a lack of cash and staff have left many councils struggling to do this kind of work quickly and efficiently.

At a meeting of the council’s audit committee on Monday, Mr Feeney outlined the difficulties his service is facing.

Asked by Labour councillor Jane Dowson if the planning service had “enough money to hit all the functions you have as a department,” Mr Feeney replied: “That’s a good question. I would say ‘no’, although we are obviously doing our best with resources we have available to us.”

He later added: “The challenge we’ve had in recent years has been the backlog arising through Covid – we had a very large number of applications through the system.”