Planning power for councils
Edwin Poots has released details of the “most sweeping reforms to the planning system for 30 years” but other MLAs question its timing. Emma Blee analyses the plans.
Councillors across Northern Ireland are to take on responsibility for planning decisions in their areas, under new proposals within the Planning Bill. Edwin Poots has said that the new legislation will “transform the planning system” and return control to councils.
A draft Planning Bill has been agreed by the Executive and is now being considered by the Assembly’s Environment Committee. Most planning functions will be transferred from central government to district councils.
The Planning Service would be dissolved on 31 March this year and its staff will be absorbed into the core of the Department of Environment. The six divisional planning offices across the province will be reduced to five area offices.
There will be three categories of development: regionally significant, major and local. Council officials and councillors will deal with major and local applications, while the department will hold responsibility for regionally significant and complex applications, such as the new hospital in Enniskillen.
“They [councillors] will have the recommendation of their professional planners, but they will make the decision and live with the consequences,” commented Poots.
Poots told ministers that the Bill should be passed before the end of the Assembly term. If adopted, the proposals will allow for the setting up of pilot schemes throughout the 26 councils in April and these will eventually be rolled out under the new 11-council model, which is expected to be introduced during the next Assembly’s term.
According to Poots, the proposals will “make the planning system more effective” as well as speeding up the decision-making process.
Safeguards will include an ethical standards regime, which would outline a mandatory code of conduct for councillors. A departmental spokesman explained that this will provide a guide for councillors’ behaviour, information regarding the register and declaration of interests, and a section on dealing with planning applications.
Under a new complaints procedure, all complaints regarding breaches of ethical standards in councils would be referred to the Northern Ireland Ombudsman to decide whether a case should be referred to the relevant council or if it should be investigated by his office. These proposals have now been put forward for a consultation, which runs until 11 March.
The draft Bill has faced criticisms from other political parties. The UUP’s Danny Kinahan said that the timing is “horribly wrong”. He claimed that the bill should be brought about in tandem with the reform of local government but not before it.
Sinn Féin’s Cathal Boylan believes that safeguards are vital and “would need to be enacted in legislative form either in tandem with the Planning Bill or indeed before any powers are transferred to local government”.
Alliance “reluctantly supports the Bill”. Anna Lo said that there needs to be a strong code of conduct and ethics “to ensure that councillors are not subject to undue influence from developers or businesses.”
The SDLP’s Patsy McGlone stated that legislative controls are necessary to ensure that planning permission is not used “for the purposes of political discrimination”. However, he commented that the SDLP “are very much in favour of local democracy”.
The Green Party has welcomed the transfer of enforcement powers to local councils and Brian Wilson said he hoped the new system will be “much more democratic”.
A spokesman for NILGA said the system must be “fit for purpose” and funding must be in place “to support the efficient transfer and the delivery of a locally focused planning service”.
