Northern Ireland Environment Minister Alex Attwood has published legislation aiming to ensure that planning is more efficient and economy-friendly in the run-up to the transfer of planning powers to councils.
The Planning Bill, which has just been introduced in the NI Assembly, is designed to speed up reforms and modernise the planning system before the majority of planning powers transfer to local government in 2015.
Key provisions in the Bill include:
1. an option to appoint persons other than the Planning Appeals Commission (PAC) to conduct inquiries on major planning applications
2. changes to the planning appeals system to make it faster and fairer including allowing the PAC to award costs where the unreasonable behaviour of one party has left another out of pocket
3. a new duty for statutory consultees to respond to consultations within a prescribed time frame
4. enhanced community involvement – developers will be required to consult the community before submitting major planning applications
5. simpler, tougher enforcement through raising potential fines from £30,000 to £100,000 for a series of offences; introducing fixed penalty notices where an enforcement notice has not been complied with as an alternative to costly and lengthy prosecutions through the Courts; multiple fees for retrospective planning applications
6. measures to enhance the environment including a requirement to obtain the department’s consent prior to the felling of dying trees covered by a tree preservation order.
The minister said: ‘These reforms were not meant to be in place until 2015. I am not prepared to wait. I am introducing these reforms two years early to make planning better fit for purpose today and better fit for purpose when many planning functions transfer to councils in 2015.
‘It will make the planning system more efficient for business, with greater certainty for developers and faster processing of planning applications.’
Read the Northern Ireland Executive news release at: LINK
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