Speaking at the Northern Centre’s annual dinner at the Hilton Hotel in Templepatrick, the Minister said: “An up-to-date planning system is critical to achieving the Executive’s aim to build a peaceful, fair and prosperous society in Northern Ireland supported by a vibrant and dynamic economy and a rich and sustainable environmental heritage.
“Since last summer I have set in motion measures which I believe will help the planning system. Professor Greg Lloyd, of the University of Liverpool, has been appointed to provide me with an independent opinion on how to achieve planning reform.
“Action is already being taken in a number of key areas. For example, greater use is now being made of pre–application discussions for strategically important applications. This is a separate, additional advisory service where developers and planners discuss what supporting information is needed before an application is submitted. The aim is to speed up the time taken to issue a final decision.
“A successful pilot for streamlined consultation has been introduced to the city council in Londonderry, whereby non-contentious, minor applications, with no objections, are decided without the need for formal consideration at the Council Planning Committee scheduled meetings. Councillors have congratulated planning officials on the success in reducing the turnaround time. On average, the processing of a minor application now takes 20 working days. I would like to see this become the norm in all areas.
“We have also established a Strategic Projects Division which is working to ensure that economically and socially significant projects and those relating to major infrastructure are managed as quickly as possible. We are actively exploring the possible expansion to include expertise from other organisations and functional areas, thus allowing for the creation of multi-disciplinary teams aimed at further improving the service and shortening processing times.
“While I am confident that these short-term measures will have an immediate beneficial effect on timescales for processing applications, I recognise that more fundamental change is required. As you may be aware, I have tasked my officials with producing a Planning White Paper by this summer which will highlight some key longer term proposals for the way forward.
“This is an ambitious programme – the current planning system has not changed fundamentally in over 30 years, but the world has not stood still. On the contrary, we are facing many varied and difficult challenges, and planning needs to be able to adapt to meet these challenges. I am talking about climate change, the demand for housing, the need to raise the quality of design, the various threats to our natural environment, and even global economic uncertainties; none of which Northern Ireland is immune from.
“The consultations this summer will include a range of proposals such as a quicker, more accessible and responsive development plan process to a reformed development control system. We propose to change the culture of planning, moving away from the concept of ‘development control’ to one of ‘development management.’’
Mr Noel McKee, Chairman of the Northern Branch of the CIOB said: “The Chartered Institute of Building is honoured to have the Minister speaking at our annual branch dinner. We have welcomed the opportunity to hear at first hand how the planning system is moving forward in Northern Ireland.”
Notes to Editors:
Media enquiries - please contact DOE Press Office 028 9054 0014 or out-of-hours call EIS Duty Press Officer on pager 07699 715 440 and your call will be returned.
