DECISIONS on planning applications for a new Aldi supermarket in Poole and a new retirement flats complex in Canford Cliffs have been deferred due to technical issues.

BCP Council’s planning committee had been due to consider both schemes on Thursday but IT issues meant Poole-based council officers were unable to connect to the meeting.

As a result, committee chairman, councillor David Kelsey, deferred both decisions to allow them to be made “informed by information from all parties”.

"Due to ongoing technical issues affecting the Poole network today, [council] officers are unable to gain remote access to the Poole systems,” he said at the start of Thursday’s meeting.

“As a result of these technical issues, the ability of officers to present the two planning applications listed on the agenda in the Poole area is hampered.

“In the interest of consistency and ensuring members’ deliberations on these two items are fully informed by information from all parties, the decision has been taken to defer these two planning applications until the next available scheduled planning committee.”

BCP Council was formed last year from the merger of Bournemouth, Poole, Christchurch and Dorset County councils but many of its IT systems have yet to be combined.

Decisions on Aldi’s plans to open a supermarket in Fleets Corner and McCarthy and Stone to demolish two blocks of flats in Canford Cliffs Road to make way for a new seven-storey retirement complex will now be made on October 15.