Countryside Alliance Ireland - love the countryside

Countryside Alliance Ireland welcomes the publication of the New Rural Planning Policy by the Department of the Environment. The new Draft PPS21 replaces the ill conceived and controversial PPS14 which we campaigned against because it stifled our rural economies and severely restricted our rural population’s opportunities to live and work in rural Northern Ireland. We believe that PPS21will boost the rural economy and is indeed a step towards a fair and workable policy for our countryside.

On first reading, the new PPS21 offers development opportunities that were absent in PPS14 and we hope these opportunities will benefit more of the rural population and communities that PPS14 failed to take account of. The drafting of the new planning policy has taken considerable time and effort albeit PPS21 includes what was good and useful in Draft PPS14. The Department have omitted the overly restrictive policies that were imposed under Direct Rule and have had the foresight to include new imaginative measures that we believe will be of benefit to Northern Ireland as a whole.The new policy came into effect immediately when it was published and will apply across the whole of Northern Ireland including all the Greenbelts and Countryside Policy areas with the exception of areas that are under special protection, such as Slieve Gullion and areas of the Mournes.  In layman terms, the new Draft PPS21 will be used as the planning policy on sustainable development in the countryside and will be the policy used to assess planning applications for the development in the countryside that have been received since the 16^th March 2006.This means that the 2000 planning applications that were refused under PPS14 can now be reassessed under the new policy. Indeed some applications may be successful under the new policy and be recommended for approval. However, this will take some months to complete and persons who had submitted applications are asked to bear this timescale in mind.The Department is urging people to read if for themselves and to come to a valued decision on whether they believe it will deliver what is required for Northern Ireland. It is still a draft document and open to consultation and you have until the 31^st March 2009 to make your submission.Countryside Alliance Ireland would like to hear your views on the draft for inclusion in our submission. The full consultation document can be downloaded from the Department’s website at www.doeni.gov.uk