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Local development plan
The Local Development Plan will seek to guide investment in Belfast, setting out how the city should develop in the future. The draft Plan Strategy sets out the overall aspirations for the future development of Belfast and policies to be used in assessing planning applications.
The Department for Infrastructure following consideration of the PAC Report on the Independent Examination of the draft Plan Strategy issued a Direction to the Council on 4 February 2022. Through the Direction, under Section 12 of the Planning Act (Northern Ireland) 2011, the DfI accepted the recommendations of the PAC and directed the Council to modify the draft Plan Strategy to include the 78 modifications detailed in Independent Examination Report. This included further public consultation in connection with a new strategic policy on managing growth and supporting infrastructure delivery. Following the consultation, the wording of the additional policy was agreed with DfI and it issued a second Direction on 9 March 2023.
The documentation and correspondence arising from the consideration following the close of the independent examination process and up to the adoption of the Plan Strategy (May 2023) are set out within the Post Examination Modification section of the Document Library.
Following the consideration of the draft Plan Strategy submission the Department for Infrastructure (DfI) appointed the Planning Appeals Commission (PAC) to conduct an Independent Examination of the Belfast City Council Local Development Plan in December 2019. The documentation and correspondence arising from the examination process was published (link opens in new window) by the PAC and is set out within the Independent Examination section of the Document Library.
The draft Plan Strategy and evidence base was submitted to the PAC in January 2020 and the initial assessment completed by July 2020 concluding with a request for further information in relation to matters identified by the Commissioners. On the basis of further submissions and clarifications it was confirmed that the draft Plan Strategy could progress to Independent Examination on 27 August 2020.
The Independent Examination for the draft Plan Strategy was carried out in two stage (16 to 26 November 2020 and 18 January 2021 to 8 March 2021) by hearings conducted under the PAC Remote Hearings Protocol.
The Commissioners’ completed their consideration, following on from the draft Plan Strategy independent examination, with the submission of their Report to the Department for Infrastructure on the 29 September 2021.
In accordance with Section 10 of the Planning Act (Northern Ireland) 2011 and Regulation 20 of The Planning (Local Development Plan) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2015, the council submitted its Local Development Plan draft Plan Strategy (dPS) to the Department for Infrastructure on 30 August 2019.
The submission of the documents to the Department for Infrastructure forms the first step of the Independent Examination stage for the Local Development Plan process. In accordance with Regulation 21 of the Planning (Local Development Plan) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2015, Belfast City Council has advertised this step and the availability of the submitted Belfast Local Development Plan 2035 draft Plan Strategy and associated documents.
The list of the documentation submitted with the draft Plan Strategy is provided in the Document Library under the Draft Plan Strategy Submission section of the Document Library. In addition to the previously published information there are a number of new documents including:
All submissions received in relation to our draft Plan Strategy for the Belfast Local Development Plan were open for counter representations from 12 noon on Friday 1 March 2019 to 12 noon on Friday 26 April 2019.
All the Counter Representations received in relation to our draft Plan Strategy representations are available to download from the Local Development Plan Document Library.
View all counter representations to our draft Plan Strategy
The representations and counter representations received are also available for inspection during normal office hours at our Belfast Planning Offices (Cecil Ward Building, 4-10 Linenhall Street, Belfast).
There is no opportunity to make any further representations at this stage.
The draft Plan Strategy formal consultation ran from Thursday 20 September 2018 to Thursday 15 November 2018.
All submissions received in relation to our draft Plan Strategy for the Belfast Local Development Plan are available to download from the Local Development Plan Document Library.
All the formal Development Plan documents, associated publications and evidence base are available to download from the Document Library. The list of the published documentation for the draft Plan Strategy is provided in the Document Library.
The main documents are:
If you have any queries on accessing the documentation, contact the Planning Office at localdevelopmentplan@belfastcity.gov.uk
Our Planning team can also help on 028 9050 0510.
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