A total of 37.5% of major decisions were dealt with within 13 weeks, 58% of minor decisions were dealt with within eight weeks and 73 .8% of other decisions were made within eight weeks.

Julian Swainson, chairman of the Broads Authority planning committee said: "We are very pleased that the good team work between members and officers has been recognised at the highest level. We have looked at every area of our work to make it as efficient as possible and are working on further improvements to make our planning service even more effective and easier to use."

The authority carried out an internal review of its work and asked regular applicants and agents to identify how improvements could be made.

"We have now freed up more time to spend on providing advice to applicants resulting in higher quality development, " said Gillian Morgan, the authority's director of Planning and Development.