Background and Policy Objectives
3.The Order amends existing legislation contained in the Planning (Northern Ireland) Order 1972, the Planning (Northern Ireland) Order 1991 and the Strategic Planning (Northern Ireland) Order 1999.
4.In relation to planning enforcement and control the Order: -
simplifies, streamlines and strengthens the Department's enforcement
powers and introduces new enforcement powers. These include: ‑
the power to issue planning contravention notices and breach of condition notices; and,
an express power to apply to the court for an injunction to prevent a threatened breach of planning control.
improves control over development by: -
giving district councils a statutory consultative role when the Department is drawing up, modifying, varying or discharging a planning agreement;
introducing building preservation notices to enable the Department to respond quickly to protect buildings at risk (‘spot listing’);
funding, in certain circumstances, bodies, which may include building preservation trusts, to enable the acquisition of buildings considered to be at risk;
broadening the definition of "advertisement" to ensure that modern forms of outdoor advertising are subject to advertisement control;
providing that a stop notice shall come into effect immediately, unless the Department specifies a later date;
introducing a regulation making power to allow the scope of regulations requiring environmental assessment under EC Directive Reference 85/337/EEC to go beyond the EC minimum requirements;
empowering the Department, in certain circumstances, to decline to determine applications if, within the preceding 2 years, a similar proposal had been dismissed on appeal by the Planning Appeals Commission;
empowering the Planning Appeals Commission to dismiss an appeal if it appears that the appellant is causing undue delay;
giving prime importance to development plans in the determination of planning applications; and,
providing the Planning Appeals Commission with greater operational flexibility.
5.In relation to strategic planning, the regional development strategy, which covers the period up to 2025, provides an over‑arching strategic planning framework to facilitate and guide the long‑term development of the region. The Order amends the Strategic Planning (Northern Ireland) Order 1999 to require planning policies, development plans and development schemes to be “in general conformity with” the regional development strategy rather than “consistent with” the strategy. It makes provision for a statement of conformity procedure in the statutory planning process, which will re‑affirms the primacy of the regional development strategy in relation to the requirement that all future development plans must be “in general conformity with” it. It also provides a transitional saving for three development plans (the Cookstown Area Plan 2010, the Craigavon Area Plan 2010 and the Dungannon & South Tyrone Area Plan 2010), which were at an advanced stage prior to the formulation of the Regional Development Strategy.
6.In relation to development schemes, the Order amends Part VII of the Planning (Northern Ireland) Order 1991 to enable the Department for Social Development to enter into agreements for the development of land where it intends to acquire land under Article 91 of the Planning (NI) Order. Previously it could only enter into such agreements when it had acquired the land.
