PPS 5: Retailing and Town Centres
Planning Strategy for Rural Northern Ireland

8. The Planning Strategy for Rural Northern Ireland (the Rural Strategy), published in September 1993, covers all the towns, villages and countryside outside the Belfast Urban Area, the adjoining towns of Carrickfergus and Bangor, and Londonderry. It provides a comprehensive framework for the preparation of development plans and establishes the objectives and policies, including those which are related to retail development, which are appropriate to the particular circumstances of those parts of Northern Ireland. Many of the policies relating to retail development in the Rural Strategy are incorporated into this Planning Policy Statement, which applies to Northern Ireland as a whole.

The retail development policies in this Statement do, however, add to or amend those stated within the Rural Strategy, and in particular, this Planning Policy Statement: Retailing and Town Centres will supersede the following policies in the Planning Strategy for Rural Northern Ireland: