Northern Area Plan 2016 Draft Plan

Latest news about the Plan:
20th February 2008

Latest News about the Draft Northern Area Plan and Draft Magherafelt Area Plan Strategic Environmental Assessment Judicial Review Cases.

Mr Justice Weatherup’s judgment in respect of the judicial challenges against the Strategic Environmental Assessments for both the Draft Northern and Magherafelt Area Plans was handed down in the High Court on Friday 7 September 2007. Subsequently, the Department issued determinations to the effect that it was not feasible to have carried out a directive compliant strategic environmental assessment of the plans on 7 November 2007.

A remedies hearing took place on 8 November 2007 and the judgment on this was handed down on 13 November 2007. The ruling essentially refused to quash the draft plans, the environmental reports or the EA Regulations as requested by the applicants. However, declarations were made to the effect that the NI 2004 Regulations do not properly transpose the SEA Directive and that the content and sequencing of the plan’s Environmental Reports were not in substantial compliance with the SEA Directive.

Following careful consideration and legal advice, the Department has lodged a notice of appeal against the judgment in regard to the transposition issues and is currently pressing for an early appeal hearing date.

In relation to the Draft Magherafelt Area Plan the applicants have indicated that they will not pursue any further legal proceedings in this case. In return the Department has agreed not to appeal the award of costs. Therefore, this enables work on this Draft Plan to recommence, allowing it to move towards independent examination/public inquiry as soon as practicable.

There has been no further progress regarding the draft Northern Area Plan, however, the Department is actively considering the best way forward with legal advisors.

Determination as to the feasibility of carrying out an Environmental Assessment

The Environmental Assessment for the Northern Area Plan 2016, which was published as a Technical Supplement to the Plan on 11 May 2005, has been the subject of a judicial review. The High Court delivered a judgment on 7th September 2007.

Planning Service has now conducted a review of its decision to carry out an environmental assessment of the draft plan under the terms of the Directive and the 2004 Regulations in light of the recent judgment of the High Court. As a result of that review, the Department of the Environment has now determined that it was not feasible to carry out an environmental assessment of the Draft Northern Area Plan 2015 in accordance with the Directive and the 2004 Regulations. The full non-feasibility determination and the Department’s paper setting out the case for the non-feasibility determination can be viewed using the links below.

• Non-Feasibility determination 88 KB
• Reconsideration on the feasibility of undertaking Environmental Assessment for Northern Area Plan 2016 498 KB

Inspection of Counter objections

The Department has registered approx. 90 respondents, and identified nearly 1500 counter-objections.  These are now available for viewing on the website.

• Inspection of Counter Objections

Draft Plan Documentation

Documentation	Details
Draft Northern Area Plan 2016	html
Draft Plan Technical Supplements	html
Draft Plan Newsletter	684 KB
Northern Area Plan 2016 - Community Consultation Report	484 KB
Northern Area Plan 2016 - Issues Paper	2,004 KB

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