As showcased in our recent report Planning Naturally, the RSPB is involved in the planning systems of all four countries of the UK. I have just returned from the annual meeting of RSPB planners, which was hosted by our colleagues in Northern Ireland. We stayed on the north coast of Antrim and enjoyed a tour of the National Trust’s new visitor centre at the Giant’s Causeway, a worthy winner of the RTPI/RSPB Northern Ireland Sustainable Planning Awards.
Like other parts of the UK, Northern Ireland is going through a period of planning reform. The Planning Act (NI) 2011 looks ahead to the transfer of planning powers to 11 new local councils in 2015. Planning policy statements are being revised and, in common with other parts of the UK, there are plans to turn this into a single, streamlined, document.
All this is relatively uncontroversial and is a necessary part of the transition to a modern planning system.
The transfer of powers to new local councils, whose members have never previously had the responsibility of exercising those powers, is a challenge in itself.
But what really worries us is how the Northern Ireland Executive has lost the plot on sustainable development, and is severely limiting people’s ability to challenge planning decisions.
The five guiding principles of sustainable development have been defined (by the UK Government and the Devolved Administrations in 2005) as living within the planet’s environmental limits and ensuring a strong, healthy and just society, underpinned by a sustainable economy, good governance and responsible use of sound science.
A new Planning Bill, currently being considered by the Northern Ireland Assembly, undermines this integrated approach by placing economic matters front and centre in planning decisions. Bad as the original bill was, hastily introduced amendments on ‘economically significant planning zone schemes’ give no regard to special places, and gives responsibility for such schemes to the Office of the First Minister and deputy First Minister (OFMDFM), not the Department of the Environment. For English planners that would be like No. 10 taking planning powers from the Department of Communities and Local Government.
It gets worse, though. The Bill also prevents any legal challenge against planning decisions by the Department of the Environment, OFMDFM or (in future) a council. That’s right, any legal challenge. The only exceptions are where the question of law relates to the European Convention of Human Rights or to EU law. The only further qualification is that it relates to types of planning decisions which will be contained in an order made by OFMDFM, and as we have no idea what will be contained that order, that’s not very reassuring.
So, while designated European sites may not be affected, or developments which require Environmental Impact Assessment, most other things are.
This completely contravenes principle 10 of Planning Naturally, ‘Those adversely affected by a planning decision should have a fair opportunity to challenge it’. I’m no lawyer, but there must be some question about whether this is actually legal. It’s certainly unprecedented.
Is this a harbinger of things to come in the rest of the UK?
On 14 June, just before the G8 summit in Enniskillen, the Prime Minister, the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, and the First and deputy First Ministers signed the document ‘Building a Prosperous and United Community’ which said: “The Executive will establish a new process for economically significant planning applications, and make new arrangements in relation to applications for Judicial Review of planning decisions”.
That seems to make No. 10 complicit in this attack on people’s rights to challenge planning decisions, which emerged as an amendment to the Bill only six days later with no public consultation.
The new Environment Minister, Mark Durkan, is currently considering the way forward for the Bill. We don’t know when it will return to the Assembly for the next stage in the process, but we ask him to reflect on the impact of this ill-judged Bill on the special places and people of Northern Ireland.
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