Cross-border planning co-operation ‘can create prosperity’

Cross-border co-operation on planning issues could bring economic and social prosperity, it was claimed yesterday.

Northern Ireland Environment Minister, Alex Attwood, said there should be greater collaboration between Belfast and Dublin to develop an all-island approach to health, roads, water and waste.

“An all-island spatial strategy may be a ‘no-go zone’ for some — however, I believe it is the best future for us all. In the absence of this, we have duplication, less cohesion, less impact, more cost,” he said.

Mr Attwood was addressing 200 delegates at the Irish Planning Institute’s annual conference at Belfast City Hall.

Planning reform in Northern Ireland; local government reform in the Republic; opportunities in cross-border and coastal planning; renewable energy, and lessons in city-regeneration are among the topics for discussion during the two-day conference

“We have to learn from best-practice and avoid the worst practice of planning devolved to local councils in Scotland and Ireland. Local plans done well can liberate local areas. We can see that in other places. “We can replicate this here, if we get the transfer of planning done right. This is the prize. We can secure it,” said Mr Attwood.

Joanna Kelly, president of the Irish Planning Institute, said increasing pressures for cross-border developments, like fracking projects and wind farms, meant North/South co-operation was crucial.

“All national and regional policy documents throughout the island of Ireland should be strategically aligned, so that the public policies are consistent,” Ms Kelly said. She also called for a reduction in the amount of red tape and said more must be done to educate the public about the planning system.

“The public must understand how their local government and planning system works.

“We need to ensure that everyone understands the principles of good planning and why certain decisions are made,” she said.

Meanwhile, Jan O’Sullivan, the Republic’s Minister for Housing and Planning, said both sides of the border had much to learn from each other.

“Increasing collaboration across administrative and political boundaries will ensure the planning process gives certainty to both communities and investors, whether in the North or in the South, and in relation to defining future development priorities and possibilities,” she said.

Lessons had been learned from past mistakes, she said.

“There is a determined consensus in the view that what happened in the past can never occur again, but our vision for planning must go beyond that,” Ms Kelly said.

“By placing the values of community, sustainability and the common good at the heart of our planning system, we can fashion a mechanism that prepares for our country’s economic recovery and delivers a thriving, sustainable Ireland for the decades ahead.”