Northern Ireland Planning Service

There are many good people in the Planning Service but in its current form the economy in NI simply cannot afford the structures, often needless restrictions and vagaries.
It has no clear objective and that is largely a political problem. The DOE is under local political control. The politicians should be setting the agenda and not the other way around which seems to be the case.
Also Planning fees are truly outrageous. They are meant to pay for the processing of the application, but how can any application cost £250,000? Remember these costs are transferred onto you the customers of those applying. They are development taxes pure and simple. £800 for a planning Application for a house. That is £800 onto the price of that house pure and simple, plus the cost of whatever survey or report the Service may consider necessary.
Then there is the time taken to come to a decision. The airport extension is a good example; Surely it does not take that long to decide to refuse or approve? Delay costs jobs and causes confusion. It wastes peoples time. Imagine you had borrowed say 1 million to buy a site for a business and it took 2 years to get approval. Direct interest costs say £100,000 loss of production anyone’s guess.
Planning permission required for decking over 300 mm off the ground, get a life. Read the Permitted Development legislation and see just how mean spirited it is.

I could go on and on. Many good people tied up in a Department that has long ago ceased to serve rational purpose. It needs an overhaul and clear purpose with clear objectives.

The NI planning service don’t even deserve 1 star in actual fact.
THIS PLACE IS SO BADLY F****D UP I DON’T KNOW WHERE TO BEGIN
Incompetent
Fibbers (polite for LIAR LIAR)
Snotty
Unhelpful
Ignorant
Unprofessional
Evasive
Underhand
Sly
And these are just the positive things I have to say about the NI planning service and the shower of pond scum they employ. Anyone who has had the misfortune of having to deal with this service will know well and truly what I am talking about. A monument to all that is wrong with local government and why we are so deep in the red after years and years of unnecessary red tape bound by more red tape then losing the file. I have not had ONE positive encounter with the NIPS in 4 years and in reflection would have lived in a tent quicker than deal with them.
Slow, nit picking, lazy, blinkered, uncooperative.
A big shake up is badly needed here