Attwood Moves on PAC Reports 7 June 2012
Attwood moves to create certainty on PAC Reports on BMAP and BNMAP
Environment Minister
Alex Attwood has published Planning Appeals Commission (PAC) reports detailing
objections on the Belfast Metropolitan Area Plan (BMAP) and Banbridge Newry and
Mourne Area Plan (BNMAP).
The Minister departed
from his Departments long established practice and, in the interest of
certainty for all involved, has made the PAC Reports available today.
Alex Attwood said: This
is a break with the past. It aims to create more certainty for landowners,
investors, business people and the communities of Belfast (BMAP) and Banbridge,
Newry and Mourne (BNMAP).
I believe this
departure from the orthodoxy around plans is a very different way to go about
the local development plans.
I am rightly told to
be decisive, that planning must enable development, that good planning is
Plan–led, that individuals and investors welcome certainty. I agree. That is
why I am proceeding in this way.
It has been the
practice on area plans that, only after DOE has fully considered and
interrogated the recommendations of the PAC, plans are adopted in full or with
amendments and published.
Work on the Belfast
plan started 11 years ago; the draft was published in November 2004; a public
inquiry ended in May 2008. I received the last part of the PAC conclusion in
January 2012. Banbridge, Newry and Mourne began in 2000 and I received the PAC
Report in March 2012. This is the context for this major shift in how DOE and I
as DOE Minister take forward plans.
I want to make one
matter very clear. A question in everyones mind will be what is the status of
recommendations in the PAC Reports now that they are public and how can this be
relied upon?
Although my
Department is ultimately responsible for making the final decision on the
recommendations made by the PAC, where the PAC recommendations are supportive
of the contents of the Draft Plans, it is likely that my Department will accept
these recommendations, unless there is a very good reason not to.
The delay in the
finalization of BMAP has been particularly frustrating for many people who have
been involved in the process. Given the need for certainty in the current
economic situation, I believe that my decision to publish the PAC Reports for
BMAP and BNMAP demonstrates commitment to open and decisive government, and to
good planning.
The PAC Reports are
now available on the DOE Planning website, http://www.planningni.gov.uk
together with a Ministerial Statement which provides guidance on the status of
the Reports.
Minister Attwood
concluded: I realise the importance of development plans as a basis for
rational and consistent decisions relating to development proposals, and this
will provide some certainty in the interim period, prior to the long awaited
adoption of BMAP next year.
