Planning report lists 'failures'

The number of decisions per planner has fallen by 19% in the last two years

The Northern Ireland Planning Service has "consistently failed" to meet its own targets over recent years, a report by the NI Audit Office has found.

There has also been a significant drop in customer satisfaction with the service, with approval ratings dropping from 76% in 1998 to 32% in 2008.

It also failed to meet "public service agreement" targets in relation to the time it took to process applications.

But the report said staff caseloads were considerably above the UK average.

Property boom

The Comptroller and Auditor General and head of the NI Audit Office, Kieran Donnelly, published his report into the government agency's performance on Wednesday.

The report recognised that the Planning Service's performance was strongly influenced by the recent property boom which saw the number of applications it had to deal with soar from 20,000 back in 1996 to a peak of over 36,000 in 2006.

Among other key findings was the failure to provide up-to-date "development plan" coverage for the whole of Northern Ireland.

The original deadline for that to be completed was March 2005, but the report found that less than half of Northern Ireland was covered by the specified date.

Cost increase

In the last financial year, the Planning Service had an income of £17.7m, which it earned mostly from planning fees.

However, its gross expenditure was two-and-half times its income, and stood at £42m.

The Audit Office estimated the cost of processing a planning application increased by nearly 60% in the four year period from 2004/05 to 2008/09.

Meanwhile, the number of decisions made per planner has fallen by nearly 20% in the last two years.

A new online application system has been in the pipeline since 2004, but even this is now "significantly behind schedule" and millions over budget.

At £12.8m, it will cost more than twice the £5.5m original estimate.

The report pointed to an "absence of staffing" which it said contributed to the Planning Service being "poorly placed" to either meet its targets or manage its resources.

Successful initiatives

On a positive note, the report said the Planning Service had introduced a number of initiatives to improve its delivery, including a system which had reduced the number of invalid applications from 8,000 to 500.

It was also rolling out a successful pilot programme which would streamline its consultations with local councils on planning proposals.

Royal Town Planning Institute NI Policy Officer Brian Sore said the institute looked forward to the "implementation of the recommended reform of planning and the review of local authorities".

"The institute provided a 36 page response to the consultation document issued by the minister and we now want a speedy initiation of these reforms that will help to address issues raised in the Audit report," he said.