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Planning service 'an obstacle to Northern Ireland's economic progress'
Monday, 12 January 2009
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Business leaders today branded Northern Ireland's Planning Service as unfit and the biggest obstacle to economic progress in the region.
The Institute of Directors urged Environment Minister Sammy Wilson to act immediately to address the blockage the service was having on economic development.
IoD Northern Ireland chairman Joanne Stuart said firms were going out of business because planners simply would not make decisions.
The call for action came 24 hours after the minister himself launched a stinging attack on officials in part of his own department for refusing permission for what would have been the region's tallest building.
The minister said the decision to reject an application to build the £90 million, 37-storey Aurora building in Belfast city centre was totally nonsensical.
"Planning officers have a role to play in kick-starting the economy and in this case they have failed and failed abysmally," said Mr Wilson.
The IoD said they were of similar mind. In spite of engaging with the Planning Service over the past six years, they said they were disappointed with the inadequate progress in improving the organisation from within.
It was, they said, "bureaucratic, unprofessional and the single biggest obstacle to economic progress".
The institute said the Planning Service had not woken up to the fact that the power-sharing Stormont Executive had placed the economy as its number one priority in the Programme for Government, and that the planners had failed to recognise the role they needed to play in support of the programme's objectives.
"In short there is no confidence in the planning system," said the IoD.
The business body has already met with Mr Wilson to discuss problems with the Planning Service and, at his request, provided him with a lengthy list of inappropriate treatment by the service of planning applications and summarised their experiences of "major flaws" in the service.
It said the service was bogged down with bureaucracy, with simple decisions taking far too long to make and with a lack of consistency in decisions.
"The process is proving very costly for local developers and makes it impossible for them to make a return on valuable assets while waiting for the service to make a decision," it said.
Ms Stuart added: "Even before the recession hit, companies were going out of business because planners would not make decisions.
"They do not seem to care about the economic impact and loss of benefit of these investments to the wider community."
She added: "Last week's news about the Aurora development in Belfast's Great Victoria Street appears to be another example of how the Planning Service disregards the economic priority.
"They continually attach a much higher premium to the environmental lobby."
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David "the plans for the aurora are very high quality"??
You obviously haven't looked at the planning application! This proposal represents over 900 housing units to the acre!! One quote from the Housing executive consultation should surfice
which noted that the studio flats at 323 sq feet were "extremely small" and below the minimum standards for social housing!
Now thats what I call a quality development!
Posted by Maria | 16.01.09, 23:49 GMT
Perhaps one way of sppeding up decision making is for planners to immedately kick into touch poorly designed, over intensive or insensitive proposals rather than engage in protracted negotiations with developers whose only interest is to make as much money as they can irrespective of the environment they create!
Posted by Ma | 14.01.09, 22:36 GMT
Ms Stuart is completely right why do they take so long in making a decision? They should be given a timescale to make a decision about something. I am amazed this policy doesnt exist already. What can we expect from a Government Dept what a complete waste of taxpayers money? Who is auditing these departments? Whoever it is they are not doing their job.
Posted by jp | 14.01.09, 17:35 GMT
the plans for aurora are very high quality. To even have a chance of getting throught the planning office assult course they would have to be because it would have been/will be such a prominant building.
Planning needs to change drastically, it is too slow and too beaurocratic. IN other parts of the UK planning departments have already been streamlined to deliver projects faster and projects that are suitable for their surroundings.
In NI this doesnt happen, there are some extremely poor projects that have been given approval in the belfast city centre area over the last number of years and some extremely high quality projects that have been held back for no apparent reason.
Posted by david | 13.01.09, 16:42 GMT
It seems the IOD is confusing "kick starting the economy" and "making a return on valuable assets" with advocating greed. Perhaps it should be encouraging those they represent to submit more realistic planning applications rather than trying to shoe horn unrealistic and poorly designed proposals into sites in order to generate maximum profit at the expence of the built environment. That in itself may reduce delays!
Posted by Not DUPed | 12.01.09, 19:35 GMT
Rubbish, the biggest obstacle to economic progress at the minute would be the disaster brought down on us by greedy bankers and politicians who serve them!
The planning service has a responsibility to weigh the advantages/disadvantages and surprise surprise, business leaders blame it for their own shortcomings. Try designing a better building that's suitable for the patch of land you've managed to get your hands on. Oh and the usual target, the environmental lobby, who have the nerve to try to preserve N.I. real assets, rather than plundering it to improve their bank accounts.
Posted by roy | 12.01.09, 18:19 GMT