SCHEDULE Development Plans
Regulation 32

1 Preliminary
In this Schedule—
“departmental development plan” means a development plan prepared and adopted by the Department under the Planning (Northern Ireland) 1991 Order before the coming into operation of these Regulations or a development plan prepared by the Department under that Order before but not adopted until after the coming into operation of these Regulations; and
“transitional period” means the period between the coming into operation of these Regulations and the date on which a council adopts its local policies plan or the date on which the local policies plan is approved by the Department.

2 Departmental development plan as local development plan
Subject to paragraph 3, during the transitional period a departmental development plan shall operate as the local development plan for the area for which it was made and shall be treated for the purposes of the 2011 Act and any other enactment relating to planning as being the local development plan for that area.

3 Departmental development plan and plan strategy as local development plan
Where a plan strategy is adopted by a council or approved by the Department in accordance with Part 2 of the 2011 Act—
(a) a reference to the local development plan in the 2011 Act or any enactment relating to planning is a reference to the departmental development plan and the plan strategy read together; and
(b) any conflict between a policy contained in a departmental development plan and those of the plan strategy must be resolved in favour of the plan strategy

4 Discontinuance of departmental development plan on adoption of local development plan
Where a council adopts a local policies plan for its district (or the Department approves a local policies plan for that district) so much of the departmental development plan as relates to that area shall cease to have effect.