Judge rules NI rural development policy unlawful

A High Court Judge has ruled that the Northern Ireland administration acted unlawfully in introducing a new rural planning policy last year which effectively banned consents for single dwellings in the countryside.

Controversially the moratorium on development was brought into effect on the day the then Department for Regional Development published the policy - enshrined in PPS 14 (Sustainable Development in the Countryside) - in draft.

At the time the then Northern Ireland minister Lord Rooker argued that the decision to implement the new policy immediately was justified on the grounds that if the Government had waited until the new regime had been consulted on, it would have been undermined and frustrated by a surge of applications.

Lord Rooker said that "the high rate of new buildings in the countryside is unsustainable and will produce irreversible and unacceptable impacts on the environment".

Last year Omagh District Council was given leave for a judicial review of the new policy on the grounds it was implemented without proper consultation and that the Minister for Regional Development did not have the legal authority to decide on the ban. The council's challenge was supported by five other local authorities.

In his 29-page judgement, the judge, Mr Justice Gillen, ruled that the minister's decision and the PPS 14 were "unlawful and ultra vires".

After the ruling councillor Bert Wilson, chairman of Omagh District Council, said: "We are not advocating a planning 'free-for-all' but planning which is based on local development plans proposed by councils, which will ensure that our rural communities can continue to thrive and be sustainable and that the traditional rural way of life is protected and safeguarded."

The Northern Ireland Executive Department of Environment issued a statement saying: "Environment minister Arlene Foster has noted the judgment of the High Court today that the Department for Regional Development did not have powers to prepare PPS 14.

"Her understanding, despite some press reports to the contrary, is that the judge has yet to decide whether or not to quash PPS 14.

"The court has given the parties a week to consider the issue of remedies before finalising the judgment. The minister has said that she will ensure that the two departments will liaise in respect of the remedies.

"However, until the issue of remedies has been determined the minister has made it clear Planning Service will still take draft PPS 14 into account when it is deciding applications."

The minister added that she is currently participating with other ministers in an Executive Sub-committee which is looking at the whole policy of single dwellings in the countryside.

Read the judgement here.

Read Omagh District Council press release.

Roger Milne

13 September 2007