Council backs the planners

Councillor Seamus Doyle, chairman of the council’s public services liaison committee, proposed the council write to the Minister and make a case for the local planners to stay where they are.

His comments came at the mid-monthly meeting last Monday night and sparked a lengthy discussion on the good service given to Banbridge district by the local planning office.

Councillor John Hanna commented that at one point, Banbridge district had been “one of the worst” areas in Northern Ireland with regard to planning delays due to a shortage of staff.

“I was very concerned when this was first announced as Banbridge lost out badly in terms of development because of the delay in getting planning decisions through,” said Mr Hanna. “You don’t just parachute planners in from nowhere; it takes time for them to get to know an area and the present staff are doing an excellent job.

“This is a very short-sighted move by the Department, as when things pick up again in the private sector we will need planning applications processed quicker than ever.”

Mr Doyle told the meeting that the move to redeploy such a large number of staff was not because the planning office was over-resourced but simply down to finance.

The planning official who attended the meeting, Catherine Magee, expressed her “gratitude” to councillors for their support and confirmed that 270 people, including planning officials and administrative staff, were potentially affected. She said at a meeting with senior management, staff had been asked to put their names forward for redeployment due to an 8m deficit.

The reason for this, she said, was largely due to the reduction in fees from applications due to the turndown in the building industry.