The council are telling internet users to change their security settings to access its website.

Members of the public have been having issues accessing Reading Borough Council's Planning Portal for nearly a month now, with many users complaining about the ongoing issue.

Upon loading the planning site, a message reads: "Some customers are experiencing problems accessing our planning applications online.

"This does not work on Safari browser, so please try Chrome.

"If you are having these problems you may need to go to ‘Chrome – Settings – Security’ and uncheck ‘always use https setting’ once completed, try accessing the planning portal.

"When you have finished accessing the planning portal, please revert this setting by going to Chrome – Settings and check ‘always use https setting’."

Reading Chronicle:

Becoming frustrated with the issue, one individual posted on X, formerly Twitter, saying: "Residents are unable to view planning applications on-line without turning off their security.

"I believe this issue was raised a few weeks ago and it's still not been fixed."

Following a response by Reading Borough Council in which they reiterate the instructions on their website, another user has added a note to the tweet.

It reads: "HTTP is an insecure protocol and advising people to turn off their security is bad, this could lead to your information getting leaked."

In an update at 5pm on Sunday, November 26, Reading Council said: "We are experiencing technical issues with the Council’s Planning Portal and it is currently offline.

"We apologise for the inconvenience. Please check back for updates.

"Apologies for the incorrect information that was tweeted on Friday."