Dr John Coulter: Northern Ireland's planning processes need an urgent revamp in 2025

Since the reorganisation of local government in Northern Ireland, a lot of provision for planning lies with the new super councils. But that does not mean the views of concerned constituents will have a significant voice in opposing a planned development.

Again put bluntly, a planning application could face up to one hundred letters of opposition and that application can be steam-rollered through by a council.

Such a scenario can fuel the perception that Northern Ireland’s planning processes are anything but democratic with the real power on applications resting with the professional ability of planning officials to make slick presentations to councillors on projects.

Apparently, local councillors have the power under Section 68 of the Planning Act (Northern Ireland) 2011 to revoke a controversial planning decision.

But there is also the perception that many councillors may be fearful of going against decisions by their council’s planning department over concerns of legal action against them.

Put yet even more bluntly, how many councillors have actually been trained in their powers under this Act? Perhaps the time has now come to establish an independent body with hard-hitting legal powers to revoke contentious planning decisions made by councils, especially if several dozen people have objected to it.

The real core of the problem is financial. Most folk simply do not have the cash, especially now in a cost of living crisis, to afford the massive legal costs of funding a judicial review in a bid to overturn what they perceive to be a contentious, unwanted or unneeded planning development.

While writing a letter of opposition or sending an email to a council planning department is inexpensive - the price of a stamp at most - the cost of taking a full-blown judicial review can run into tens of thousands of pounds.

Now that the devolved Assembly is back in business, perhaps the Department of Justice needs to establish a mechanism whereby ordinary citizens can be provided with a vehicle to contest planning applications which they feel will radically impact their quality of life.

Then again, could an equally radical solution be to remove planning powers from Northern Ireland’s councils completely and establish a new Stormont Department for Planning complete with its own Executive Minister rather than planning come under the current Department of Infrastructure.

One of the current flaws with planning applications which councils have to consider deals with the transport assessment forms, which estimate the amount of traffic a development would create.

Such documents contain a key question - is the development likely to generate 30 or more vehicle movements in an hour?

Naturally, anyone wanting to develop a project is going to answer ‘No’ because they don’t want to be accused of generating traffic chaos or turning a road into a potential accident blackspot.

For example, would it sound a bit laughable if there was a planning application for a holiday camp and the applicant said that at peak time, there would only be around a dozen cars and a couple of taxis visiting the site!

For example, one of the most dangerous roads in Northern Ireland is the Frocess in North Antrim which has tragically witnessed many fatal accidents and many other injured over the years.

There is the real danger that a planning application may look nice on paper, but in reality turns the road around the development into another ‘Frocess’.

There’s also the issue of location of planning projects. For example, putting a proposed holiday camp beside a residential area and several miles from the coast is about as sensible as proposing a Glasgow Rangers supporters club house in the middle of Londonderry’s Bogside, or building a GAA ground in Belfast’s Shankill Road.

Is it a case that councils can ‘push through’ controversial planning applications because planning departments know ordinary residents have no effective legal come-back - unless they have a massive cash war chest - to fight these applications at judicial review level.

There are also fears that some contentious planning applications are merely the tip of the iceberg and, if approved, will act as a springboard for future large-scale developments.

Then there’s the effects on the environment with planning applications needing to take serious heed of the consequences for animal and bird life, as well as combatting invasive species, such as Japanese Knotweed, which is a key target of the Wildlife (Northern Ireland) Order 1985.

While changes are radically needed and may take time, politicians cannot afford spending weeks and months to go round in circles discussing how to reform Northern Ireland’s planning processes.

The danger is that some residents may get so frustrated with being seemingly ignored over their concerns about contentious or unwanted planning projects that they feel their only vehicle of opposition is to copy the activities of groups such as Just Stop Oil.

Then again the simple solution may be, as Northern Ireland is supposed to be a democracy, when elections come around, constituents should exercise their rights and vote out those politicians who supported those unwanted planning applications!

Dr John Coulter has been a journalist since 1978.