Planning Service in Northern Ireland

Recent days have seen significant complaints about the Planning Service in Northern Ireland and the overall conclusion appears to be that it is not fit for purpose. The Minister of Environment Sammy Wilson stated in the News Letter, 12th January, that

"Planning officers have a role in kick-starting the economy and in this case (Aurora Building) they have failed and failed abysmally... At a time when the economy needs a boost my view is we should be using the planning service to give it that boost."

The Institute of Directors have said (News Letter 13 January) that the Planning Service noe represents the "biggest single obstacle" to economic development.

Speed appears to be one of the most crucial factors in the faults with Planning Service. This is notable in both retail development and renewable energy development - wind farms. Taking any longer than six months to assess such crucial employment and strategic infrastructure projects cannot be accepted in this time of economic crises.

There is a consultation drafted and ready to be released to the public on strategic planning, but guess what, this has been delayed for months now. The delays have been caused by political infighting which led to the Executive not meeting and since they began to meet they have been playing catch up.

It is time all Ministers relaised the dire economic straits facing people and business and got on with meetings in order to at least clear consultations that will have an impact on all of us. This may mean having two meetings a week to get these issues dealt with.

Several £100m of investment and several thousand jobs are waiting to come here how many of these jobs in retail, green energy and construction will have to be lost before the Executive realises that planning reforms are needed, not in six months, but now?