Aggrieved residents of Alexandra and Mary Victoria Roads in Devonshire have again voiced their displeasure at Government ?ineptitude? ? although their beef this time around is with the Department of Planning and not Housing Minister Ashfield DeVent.

The well-documented row over Mr. DeVent?s alleged failure to consult as pledged with area residents before resubmitting plans for a controversial housing development in their neighbourhood has fizzled out ? although severe bitterness continues to simmer beneath the surface.

However, a new conflict is now brewing between residents and Planning Director Rudolph Hollis over the last-minute receipt of an official letter giving residents 14 days to review the new plans and make known any further objections they might have.

The letter was written on July 5 and defines the deadline within which to respond as two weeks from the letter date.

Yet the postmark on the envelope reveals the correspondence was not in fact sent until July 12 ? obliterating half the time in which the residents are entitled to consider the plans.

Furthermore, because of the extensive disruption prompted by the recent blackout, the letter did not appear in the majority of residents? mailboxes until last week Friday.

Communicating their dissatisfaction by telephone, they were told by Mr. Hollis that they could have until yesterday to respond ? an alternative which has gone down like a lead balloon in a community already deeply suspicious of Government actions.

The overwhelming feeling, according to area residents? spokesperson Albertha Waite, is that the seven-day delay was either an embarrassing administrative blunder or a deliberate ploy to force them into a position where they were no longer entitled to object or would merely give up.

?We?ve been running around like headless chickens up here,? she said.

?One thing we just cannot understand is, if the 14 days was meant to start from the letter date, why did the Department of Planning sit on that letter for a week before sending it? I understand that the blackout caused a huge number of problems and the letter obviously got to us even later than they planned, but it is still unreasonable not to give us the full 14 days to consider the plans in depth. We have not had anywhere near enough time to look at what exactly is being proposed. We need to sit down as a community, look at the plans, discuss them and then draft a formal letter in reply. That is the proper procedure. The 14-day rule is a basic right of any objector when it comes to planning disputes.?

The Planning Department had not responded to questions posed by by Press time last night.