People wanting information about new developments in the Bath area will no longer be able to view hard copy paper plans at council offices.

The move is part of a council efficiency drive which will also bring the curtain down on a system where a trained planning officer was always on call to deal with face-to-face inquiries over planning applications for everything from house extensions to superstores.

The changes, which Bath and North East Somerset Council brought into force on Monday, have concerned conservation groups.

The first point of contact for people with a query about the planning system will now be the authority's Council Connect system – the call centre which deals with issues from potholes to refuse collection.

B&NES hopes most general questions about the planning process will be answered at that stage, with those needing what it describes as further technical advice and guidance being put through to an information officer in the planning department.

The council says that, in the case of complex queries, a planning officer will call back within 24 hours.

A spokesman said: "Planning applications and pre-application submissions require a high level of technical skills. Under existing arrangements, staff with these technical skills are staffing a duty planner system at Trimbridge House and Keynsham, when some of the queries the public wish to discuss could be answered by non-specialist staff.

"Professional staff will concentrate on planning and other applications and pre-application submissions and this will support work being completed more quickly."

The shake-up comes as B&NES is about to move out of the offices occupied by the planning department at Trimbridge House in Trim Street.

It says that, because the majority of planning applications are now submitted online, paper copies will no longer be automatically provided at council offices. Computer access will be available from self-service computers at Trimbridge House until it closes next month, and at the Council Connect area at the Guildhall in Bath, the Riverside offices in Keynsham, and The Hollies in Midsomer Norton, with assistance available.

The spokesman added: "These changes support the council's need to focus our resources in the most effective way."

Both the Bath Preservation Trust and the Bath Heritage Watchdog groups accuse B&NES of backtracking on a pledge made at a meeting in July that there would be "a proper reception" wherever the planning department was based.

The groups also point to the council's own Statement of Community Involvement document produced in 2007, which pledged that hard copies of applications would be available, and to planning law, which says that access to application paperwork should be "convenient".

Trust chief executive Caroline Kay said its biggest concern was over large and complex schemes such as the Western Riverside and Bath Press site developments.

"We would like to see guarantees from B&NES that applications consisting of several documents and drawings are automatically available to the council and the public in a paper form and advertised as such."

Bath Heritage Watchdog spokesman Jim Warren said there were considerable problems with downloading and reading large plans.

He said some documents submitted in the latest Western Riverside application would have taken "several days" to download via a dial-up internet connection, which some of his group's members use.

To contact Council Connect, email councilconnect@bathnes.gov.uk; ring 01225 394041, or text 07797806545.

The council says that once an application has entered the system, the applicant will have a named officer to deal with directly.

All planning application forms and plans are available online at http://planning.bathnes.gov.uk/PublicAccess/

Submissions can be done either in writing to Planning Services, Trimbridge House, Trim Street, Bath, BA1 2DP, by email to development_control@bathnes.gov.uk or using that website.

Full details can be found at www. bathnes.gov.uk/planningchanges.