Infrastructure Minister John O’Dowd has today announced amendments to The Planning (General Development Procedure) Order (Northern Ireland) 2015.
Minister O’Dowd said:
“This move is designed to improve planning performance with better quality applications entering the system, resulting in shorter processing times, more efficient consultee responses and quicker planning decisions.
“I am committed to improving the planning process and these legislative amendments have been introduced as a result of the Department’s Planning Improvement Programme which is aimed at creating an efficient, effective and equitable planning system trusted to deliver high quality, sustainable, inclusive and healthy places.”
The amendments will introduce new powers to enable councils to prepare and publish planning application validation checklists. The validation checklists will help inform applicants on the level and type of information required to be submitted along with their planning application.
The current minimum statutory requirements remain unchanged, however, the new lists will set out the additional supporting information required to accompany different types of planning applications, specific and proportionate to the type of development proposed, including its nature, scale and location. Planning applications will now only be considered valid when they comply with all the information requirements contained in a council’s published checklist.
The Order and Explanatory Memorandum will be available in due course at www.legislation.gov.uk.
Notes to editors:
- The Planning (General Development Procedure) (Amendment) Order (Northern Ireland) 2024 (S.R. No.176) will amend The Planning (General Development Procedure) Order (Northern Ireland) 2015. (S.R. No.72) (the 2015 Order) to introduce a provision enabling councils to prepare and publish planning application validation checklists. The amending Order also includes a number of other minor technical amendments to the 2015 Order.
- This change to the legislation follows a DfI Report on a Review of the Implementation of the Planning Act in 2022 which made a recommendation to introduce planning application validation checklists and which was backed-up by subsequent reports by the Northern Ireland Audit office and Public Accounts Committee. This led to a period of public consultation in 2022 on proposed amendments to the GDPO which was positively received by the majority of stakeholders, including 11 district councils.
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