THE City of Johannesburg says reports about a staff shortage problem in its town planning department have been "exaggerated and sensationalised".

"We have had resignations but it is not a mass exodus," said Amanda Nair, executive director in the planning, transportation and environment department.

Last week Business Day reported that a severe shortage of planners in Johannesburg’s town planning department had developers up in arms.

Developers said they had been told that more than 50% of town planners resigned en masse in December to take up better-paying jobs with the Ekurhuleni municipality.

They said this had left the department dysfunctional and had made it was impossible to process township applications and other approvals.

Responding to these claims, Nair said the department had lost staff to the neighbouring Ekurhuleni and Mogale City municipalities, but the department had advertised to fill all the resulting vacancies.

"We have contingency plans in place and these will include overtime and redeployment of human resources," said Nair.

She said there would be a short-term effect on "turnaround times" for the processing of applications.

"We’ll be on track in four months, and there is no cause for alarm."

Last week Brian Kirchmann, CEO of commercial property association Sapoa, said his organisation would be happy to work with the town planning department.

However, Kirchmann said that when Sapoa had previously offered to assist the City of Johannesburg, it had been sidelined.