Regional Policy Context

The BMA contains a significant rural component that comprises nearly 80% of
the land area and 13% of the population. The overall aim of the RDS in relation
to the countryside in Northern Ireland is:

‘to develop an attractive and prosperous rural area, based on a balanced and integrated approach to the development of town, village and countryside, in order to sustain a strong and vibrant rural community, contributing to the overall well-being of the Region as a whole.’

In accordance with the RDS, the Plan Proposals embrace the principles of
sustainable development, and seek to improve the quality of life of rural
communities, while developing the economy, and protecting the environment in
the countryside surrounding the Metropolitan Urban Area.

BMA Countryside and Coast Strategy

The BMA Countryside and Coast Strategy aims to: encourage vibrant rural communities in the towns, villages and small settlements; sustain and diversify the rural economy by making provision for employment/industrial use in towns and villages; conserve and enhance the rural landscape, ensuring the protection of the metropolitan setting; and protect the Coastal Area.

The Rural Community

The Countryside and Coast Strategy focuses on accommodating more housing in
the main towns and villages, in order to meet local need, maintaining a strong
network of settlements in the rural area, and sustaining the rural community. The housing allocation of 426 hectares for the rural area (Allocation HOU 1) has been distributed in accordance with the strategic context provided by the RDS. This
takes into account the need for balanced growth across the network of
settlements, while reinforcing the main towns and larger villages, and resisting the large scale expansion of smaller settlements.

During the past decade, the small towns and villages in the Belfast ‘travel to work’ area have experienced a rapid rate of population growth. The Plan Proposals
therefore recognise that some settlements in the rural area will require more
measured growth in order to protect their identity, character and setting.

The role of settlements in the rural area and the allocation of housing growth are
dealt with in the Settlements and Housing sections and the details of zoned and designated housing sites and Settlement Development Limits are contained in the relevant District Proposals.

The Rural Economy

The RDS provides a number of Strategic Planning Guidelines and measures which
focus for the rural economy within Northern Ireland, that recognise the need to:

• maintain a working countryside with a strong mixed use rural economy by (SPG-RNI 1):

  - sustaining the continuing development of a strong agricultural and agri-food 
    sector (RNI 1.1);

  - facilitating the development of rural industries, businesses  and enterprises in 
    appropriate locations, and ensuring they  are satisfactorily integrated with the 
    settlement or rural landscape, will be particularly important when proposals    
    involve the exploitation of minerals (RNI 1.2);

  - sustaining and extending the forestry resources of Northern Ireland (RNI 1.3);
    and

  - maintaining a viable fishing industry in Northern Ireland (RNI 1.4).

It is recognised that a living and working countryside requires a strong, diversified
and competitive rural economy. Although the numbers working in agriculture in the rural area represent only a relatively small proportion of those working in the agricultural industry in Northern Ireland, agriculture remains important to the rural economy, and it is also a significant factor in shaping and maintaining landscapes.

The Plan Proposals provide new opportunities for business development to
facilitate the growth and diversification of the rural economy, by zoning land for business and industry in a number of towns and villages in the rural area, including Ballyclare, Carryduff, Dromara, Glenavy and Moira. These zonings will provide employment opportunities for the rural population.

Regional planning policies also facilitate business development and farm
diversification of a nature and scale appropriate to the open countryside.

Agriculture

The total numbers working in agriculture in the Plan Area represent just over 6%
of those working in agriculture in Northern Ireland. Agriculture is particularly
important in the rural areas in Lisburn and Newtownabbey Council Areas. In 2001, 3,200 people were employed on over 1,600 holdings in the Plan Area, with the
majority of farms involved in cattle and sheep production. Dairy farming is also important, and 9% of the total farm area in the BMA is used in arable production.

Approximately 84% of farms in the Plan Area are defined as small or very small by
the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (DARD). However, this is less than the Northern Ireland average of 87%.

In common with the rest of Northern Ireland, farm incomes in the Plan Area are
falling in real terms, leading to an increased demand for alternative employment on
and off the farm. The Department accepts the need for farmers to diversify into
non-agricultural activities in order to supplement their farming income and DARD has
a range of grant assistance to support this process. 48% of farmers and their
partners work full time on their farms within the Plan Area.

Woodland and Forestry

Forest Service, DARD carry out forestry operations within the Plan Area, and just
over 1,400 hectares are within publicly managed woodland. The Forest Service also assists in the planting and management of privately owned woodlands through the payment of grants.

The National Trust, and other bodies manage and enhance (by providing
interpretative material) the biodiversity and amenity value of a number of Parks. Community Woodlands have been established by the Woodland Trust within the
Plan Area, providing a source of informal recreation, beauty, tranquillity, and quiet enjoyment for local people. The Woodland Trust provides and maintains paths,
gates and similar facilities for public access.

There is a wide variety of Parks in the BMA including the Lagan Valley Regional
Park and the Cavehill, Crawfordsburn and Redburn Country Parks. The Departments Environment and Heritage Service has responsibility for ensuring the management
of Colin Glen Linear Park in Suffolk / Dunmurry. The Colin Glen Trust currently
manages the Park under a contract agreement. Management of the Park focuses
on the provision of countryside recreation and environmental education for the
people of West Belfast and Lisburn, and has involved restoring areas to semi-natural woodland habitat.

Fishing

The Plan Area contains large stretches of coastline including Belfast Lough and a
small portion of Larne Lough. Fishing along this coastline is mainly recreational, and Bangor, Carrickfergus and Whitehead are popular fishing venues.

Recreational fishing also takes place along inland rivers such as the Crumlin and Glenavy Rivers, the Six-Mile Water entering Lough Neagh, and the River Lagan.
These rivers sustain brown trout, rainbow trout, salmon, roach and bream. The Department of Culture Arts and Leisure (DCAL) has brown and rainbow trout lakes
in the Plan Area, and these waters are fished more heavily than most in Northern Ireland. They include Stoneyford, Woodburn and Portavoe Reservoirs.

Lough Neagh supports a substantial commercial fishery mainly for eels. It has a valuable export market and sustains important local employment.

A number of companies supplying and processing seafood and fish are based in Belfast. Aquaculture is also expanding and the shellfish farming industry has gained new sites, including licences in Belfast Lough and Larne Lough.

Minerals

Mineral exploration and development provides employment and necessary materials
for construction in localised areas where useful deposits occur. However, extraction and processing can have a significant impact on the countryside. The Plan Proposals recognise the need for a sustainable approach that takes account of the need to protect and conserve environmental resources.

Policies in the Rural Strategy relating to minerals apply throughout the Plan Area.

The Rural Environment

The rural environment throughout Northern Ireland is undergoing significant change
in response to the restructuring of agriculture and increasing urban dispersal pressures. The countryside in the Plan Area contains a variety of distinctive rural landscapes, including the hills surrounding Belfast, the coast of Belfast Lough and
the Lagan Valley Regional Park, which together provide a high quality setting for
the urban area. The need to protect this setting forms a central component of the Countryside and Coast Strategy.

The challenge throughout the rural area is to accommodate future development
while protecting and caring for the environment, and maintaining the rural character
of the countryside.

Countryside and Coast Policies and Proposals

Green Belts

The RDS recognises the importance of using Green Belts, and it contains Strategic Planning Guidelines and measures that set out the need:

• to conserve the natural environment (SPG-ENV 1) by:

  - protecting, enhancing and encouraging appreciation of the   Region’s 
    landscapes, one element of which is to manage development pressures to 
    protect the setting of settlements and maintain the rural character of the
    countryside throughout Northern Ireland by designating green belts… (ENV 1.4)
  

• to continue to create and sustain an attractive and unique rural environment in the interests of the rural community and the Region as a whole (SPG-RNI 5) by:

  - managing the use of rural resources to achieve a more sustainable pattern of 
    development, one element of which is to control development in areas, 
    particularly the main commuter zone around the BMA, where there is pressure 
    for development….by means of green belts, to maintain the rural character
    and tranquillity of the countryside (RNI 5.1).

Within the context of the RDS, the Rural Strategy, the Northern Ireland Landscape Character Assessment 2000 and analysis of existing and potential development pressure, the Department considers Green Belt designation in the rural area outside the Metropolitan Development Limit and Settlement Development Limits to be
justified. This justification arises from the need for the Department to exercise
control over new development in order to meet the objectives of regional planning policy and specifically the strategic objectives of Green Belts, as set out in Policy GB/CPA 1 of the Rural Strategy.

The findings of the development pressure analysis and the detailed justification of
the inner edge of the BMA Green Belt are contained in the Countryside Assessment Technical Supplement.

Revision to Designation COU 1 BMA Green Belt

The BMA Green Belt is amended to the west of Ballyclare to facilitate a
revision to Ballyclare Settlement Development Limit. Representations will only
be accepted in relation to the amendment to the Green Belt at Ballyclare.

Supporting text as set out on pages 123-125 in Parts 1-3, Volume 1 of the
Plan Strategy & Framework is still applicable to this designation and remains
unchanged.

Designation COU 1 BMA Green Belt (Revised)

A Green Belt is designated as shown on Map No. 1– Overview and Map No. 1 – Carrickfergus Countryside, Map No. 1 – Newtownabbey Countryside, Map No. 1 – Belfast Countryside, Map No. 1 – Lisburn Countryside, Map No. 1 – Castlereagh Countryside, Map No. 1 – North Down Countryside and Map No. 2a – Metropolitan Newtownabbey and Plan Amendment No. 1 Map No. 1 - Ballyclare.

The Department considers that it is appropriate and necessary to maintain strict planning control in rural areas where development pressure is intense. Adjustments have been made to the extent of the Green Belt to take into account regional
policy and to provide increased protection for certain parts of the rural area.

The Spatial Development Strategy (SDS) in the RDS provides an indication of the approximate extent of the BMA Green Belt. The RDS also states that the precise delineation of the strategic Green Belt is to be considered within the context of
the relevant development plans, informed by the Northern Ireland Landscape Character Assessment 2000 and an analysis of existing and potential development pressure.

The Plan Proposals extend the BMA Green Belt to cover the entire rural area,
outside the Metropolitan Development Limit and Settlement Development Limits, in accordance with the SDS in the RDS. Along the coast the BMA Green Belt extends
to the low water mark with the exception of areas designated as urban waterfronts and Belfast Harbour. The previous Green Belt designation is significantly extended in the following areas:

• several areas within Lisburn City Council as follows:

  - an area to the north of Moira and west of Maghaberry village, and surrounding
    the villages of Aghalee, Lower Ballinderry, and the small settlement of 
    Feumore, situated near the shore of Lough Neagh;

  - a smaller area to the south west of the District, south of Moira, and south of 
    the small settlement of Lurganville; and

  - the area around the village of Dromara in the extreme south western portion
    of the District;
   

• Carnmoney Hill, situated in Newtownabbey Borough is a large and
  prominent natural feature surrounded by urban development which is
  included within the BMA Green Belt in order to protect the landscape and
  rural character; and

• lands within the Lagan Valley Regional Park at Lambeg that are now
  excluded from the Lisburn City Settlement Development Limit.

Within the BMA Green Belt, landscapes which are particularly sensitive because of their quality, or which need particular protection because of their location and the pressures for development on them, are afforded special protection by additional designations in the Plan. These include:

• Rural Landscape Wedges (Policy COU 2);
• BMA Coastal Area (Designation COU 3 and Policies COU 4 & COU 5);
• Areas of High Scenic Value (Designation COU 6 & Policy COU 7);
• Areas of Constraint on Mineral Development (Policy COU 8 & Designation
   COU 9)
• The Belfast Hills (Policy COU 11); and
• Lagan Valley Regional Park (Designation COU 12 and Policies COU 13 to
   COU 15).

Within these areas additional policy tests are applied over and above prevailing
Green Belt policy, in order to further safeguard the character and quality of the landscape.

Rural Landscape Wedges

The RDS highlights the use of landscape wedges in a number of Strategic Planning Guidelines and measures, focusing on the need:

• to conserve the natural environment (SPG-ENV 1) by:
  
  - sustaining and enhancing biodiversity, one element of which  is to conserve 
    and enhance the setting of cities, towns and  villages, including the landscape
    wedges linking town and  countryside (ENV 1.1).
  

•  to promote an urban renaissance throughout the Belfast Metropolitan
   Area (SPG-BMA 2) by:

  - enhancing the quality of the urban environment throughout the metropolitan 
    area, one element of which is to keep buffer landscape wedges at the edge of 
    the main urban component areas to distinguish and maintain the identities of
    Bangor, Carrickfergus, Dundonald, Holywood and Lisburn (BMA 2.3).

Policy COU 2 Rural Landscape Wedges

Within designated Rural Landscape Wedges, planning permission will only be granted for development proposals where all of the following criteria are met: a site specific need for the development to be located within the Rural Landscape Wedge is demonstrated to the satisfaction of the Department; proposals are sensitively located and integrated into the landscape; visual separation between settlements is maintained; and there is no detrimental impact on the natural heritage of nature conservation value of the landscape wedge.

Rural Landscape Wedges consist of buffer landscapes and open areas that can fulfil any of the following objectives:

• distinguish and maintain the separate identities of the component parts of the Metropolitan Area;

• prevent the merging of the component parts of the Metropolitan Area;

• provide an important element in defining and protecting the setting of settlements; and

• maintain the rural character of the countryside.

The following Rural Landscape Wedges are designated in the relevant District Proposals.

• Ballyclare                         Between Ballyclare and Hillhead
• Ballyeaston                      Between Ballyeaston and Ballyclare
• Carrickfergus                    Between Carrickfergus and Greenisland
• Carryduff                         Between Cairnshill and Carryduff
• Clandeboye                      Between Bangor and Newtownards
• Comber                           Between Dundonald and Comber
• Glencregagh                     Hill slopes at Forster Green
• Greenisland                      Between Greenisland and Jordanstown
• Groomsport                      Between Bangor and Groomsport
• Helen’s Bay                      Between Helen’s Bay and Bangor
• Hannahstown                   Between West Belfast and Hannahstown
• Holywood                        Between Metropolitan North Down and Holywood
• Mosside                          Between Lagmore and Lisburn
• Newtownards                   Between Dundonald and Newtownards
• Seahill                            Between Cultra and Seahill

It is essential that Rural Landscape Wedges are protected from inappropriate development. Within the Rural Landscape Wedges identified above all proposals will
be assessed against prevailing regional planning policies for development in the
Green Belt. In addition, proposals will be required to demonstrate how they will maintain the open nature of the wedge to ensure visual separation and protect the identities of the component areas. It will therefore be important to consider the impact of any proposed development on the integrity of the wedge, and on the
need to retain separation between settlements.

The Coast

The invaluable contribution that Belfast Lough makes to the Metropolitan Urban Area is recognised by the RDS, which highlights the need to protect and manage the Northern Ireland coastline in the following Strategic Planning Guidelines and measures:

• to protect and manage the Northern Ireland Coastline (SPG-ENV 2)

• to conserve the coast of Northern Ireland (ENV 2.1) by:-

        - protecting the undeveloped coastline, especially from intense recreational and 
          tourism pressures, assessing, and if necessary, mitigating the environmental 
          impact of essential port and other economic developments;

• seeking to keep open those strips of land or spaces right on the coastline within coastal settlements where the public can walk along the seaside or just enjoy the views out to sea;

• seeking to reconcile development and management pressures with conservation, commercial and leisure use; and

• conserving distinctive coastal habitats, and undertaking environmentally sensitive coastal protection, where environmental impact assessment shows that coastal protection is essential to safeguard infrastructure or highly
  valued environmental assets.

• to enhance the role of the City of Belfast by protecting and enhancing
  the magnificent setting of the ‘City of the Hills’, including the coastal
  setting of Belfast Lough (BMA 1.1).

The BMA coastline extends for approximately 80 kms from Blackhead Cliffs in Carrickfergus Borough to beyond Ballymacormick Point in North Down. A large proportion of the coastline of the Lough is developed, and provides the location
for several settlements, including Belfast, Bangor, Carrickfergus, Holywood and Whitehead. A significant portion of the coast contains valuable areas of open
space and recreational areas, such as golf courses and country parks, and
together these make an important contribution to the Lough setting.
 

Designation COU 3 BMA Coastal Area

The BMA Coastal Area is designated along the shores of Belfast Lough, and includes all coastal areas with the exception of a significant portion of Belfast Harbour, and the designated Urban Waterfronts in Bangor and Carrickfergus, as shown on Map No. 1 - Overview, Map No 1 - Carrickfergus Countryside, Map No 1 - Newtownabbey Countryside, Map No 1 - North Down Countryside and Map No 3/001 - Belfast Harbour Area

The designated BMA Coastal Area follows the coastline of Belfast Lough and
extends to the Low Water Mark, including the narrow strips of coast between the
High Water Mark and the Low Water Mark with the exception of the designated
urban waterfronts, and the majority of Belfast Harbour.

Although the majority of Belfast Harbour is not included in the BMA Coastal Area,
it contains many environmentally sensitive areas, and also listed buildings and scheduled monuments with an industrial heritage value. Any development for employment and port related activities within the harbour area will need to take
these factors into account.

Policy COU 4 BMA Coastal Area

Within the BMA Coastal Area planning permission will only be granted to development proposals which meet all of the following criteria: the proposed development is of such national or regional importance as to outweigh any potential detrimental impact on the coastal environment; it can be demonstrated that any proposal will improve the quality of the coastal landscape, or improve accessibility for recreation, while still protecting nature conservation value; and it will not adversely affect the special interests of natural heritage significance, particularly those identified by national or international designations.

The area surrounding Belfast Lough including the area at Outer Ards is protected by
a number of international and national nature conservation designations. The Lough
is classified as a Special Protection Area (SPA) under the European Commission Directive on the Conservation of Wild Birds, and is an internationally important area
for breeding, over-wintering, and migrating birds. The same part of the Lough is also designated as a Ramsar Site, and the inner and outer parts of the Lough have been declared Areas of Special Scientific Interest (ASSI), a designation which identifies
the Lough as having the highest degree of conservation value.

In order to ensure the protection of the BMA Coastal Area, the Plan Proposals will provide additional protection for the unique landscape value and nature
conservation interest, especially from intense recreational and tourism pressures.
This is particularly important in order to preserve the setting of Belfast, and protect the views both from the Lough, and the shoreline. As a result, the BMA Coastal
Area will rarely be an appropriate location for any form of new development.

Policy COU 5 Urban Waterfronts

Within the designated Urban Waterfronts at Bangor and Carrickfergus, planning permission will only be granted for development proposals that: enhance and regenerate the Urban Waterfront; enhance the environmental quality of the waterfront with the careful siting and design of new development and by the implementation of appropriate and attractive landscaping schemes; retain and where possible further develop public access to the coast; protect existing coastal open space; enhance tourism potential and recreational facilities; and protect important heritage features (including industrial heritage).

The Urban Waterfront areas at Bangor and Carrickfergus contain the marina
complexes and their surroundings. Within these areas the aim will be to encourage uses that will help to promote a vibrant and attractive waterfront. Bangor Urban Waterfront contains the marina and the area to the east, extending to the North
Pier. The Carrickfergus Urban Waterfront comprises the Maritime Area including the marina harbour area to the west of Carrickfergus Castle.

Details of the Urban Waterfront designations are contained in the relevant District Proposals.