TRANSFORMATIONAL... planning permission secured for MRP paves way for £80 million 821 bed managed student accommodation to regenerate Castle Street/Queen Street/Fountain Street, Belfast
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will 2025 finally see arc21 receive the green light? AND MORE INSIDE…
Remarkably, as we embrace the year 2025, we also mark the 10th anniversary since our eleven local Councils assumed responsibility for making decisions on most planning applications across Northern Ireland and for preparing local development plans to guide development across their boundaries
The transition of planning powers in April 2015 from the old DoE Planning Service structure to eleven new planning teams within each Council with a strategic planning team retained in what is now the Department for Infrastructure was much heralded.
It seemed to make a good deal of sense that development decisions should be made by accountable locally elected Councils rather than the many years of planning being a centralised Departmental function. With the Stormont administration up and running and what seemed like a degree of political stability the transformation was the right thing at the right time.
Our economy was slowly recovering from the ravages of the financial crash in 2009 and there was a sense that local government reorganisation offered a better way to manage our planning process.
The ‘Super-Councils’ as they were trailed would not only deliver more responsive development management – getting through day-day applications and making prompt decisions - they would also move to adoption of a new plan led system within three and a half years of securing their plan making function from a standing start in April 2015. Or so said the outgoing DoE.
At the time there was more than one eyebrow raised at the prospect given that the fastest a development plan had passed through the system under the management of the old DoE was 10 (TEN – for video printer fans of old) years!
As we look back over ten years it is sobering to take a raincheck on the performance of our planning system.
There is much frustration at how substantial investment and sustainable economic growth is delayed by the painful pace of our planning system.
It should be a critical enabler to unlock and secure growth and investment, yet it is more often perceived by many users to be a blockage to it.
“ Only four of the eleven Councils have an adopted Plan Strategy. None have moved to issue a draft Local Plan Policies Plan. It means we are many years away from a Plan Led system ”
Pressure to enhance performance has followed damning reviews by the Northern Ireland Audit Office and the Public Accounts Committee in 2022. There is an ongoing further review of the Planning Appeals Commission that was initiated in September 2024.
Processing times for major planning applications are significantly longer than the statutory targets with some Councils averaging over 100 weeks to decision. That inevitably means a lack of certainty and confidence in speed and structure of decision making and this must be addressed.
The pace of the move to the plan led system has also been painfully slow.
That envisages a two-tier system – the adoption of a Plan Strategy (strategic planning policy) and then a Local Policies Plan (land use zonings).
Only four of the eleven Councils have an adopted Plan Strategy. None have moved to issue a draft Local Plan Policies Plan. It means we are many years away from a Plan Led system and reliant on old Plans and balancing these with newly adopted strategic planning policy.
The relationship between Councils and consultees and the pace of responses remains a fundamental source of delay. Councils do not have the power to direct organisations outside of their control. Too often across Councils we endure all too familiar open-ended and uncertain timeframes. There is a lack of resource and responsiveness which feeds delay. It must change.
DfI must be capable of financially incentivising performance with statutory consultees to drive positive change. That should be a political priority if we are truly serious about placing the economy and an enhanced
planning system at the forefront of the Programme for Government.
There has been positive change – the move to electronic submissions and the rollout of the planning portal has improved the overall system. There is however inconsistency in approach across the Councils and there is a need to regularise and rollout application checklists to ensure that validation and processing is efficient and avoids unnecessary initial delay.
There needs to be a renewed priority placed on pre-application discussion (PAD) and a funding mechanism in place for this to ensure consultees engage and Councils elevate this to ensure it gets senior officer attention and cultural change. DfI need to ensure there is consistent guidance and advice for all Councils.
Throughout 2024 Belfast City Council has been working hard to instil enhanced confidence with developers. Their use of Planning Performance Agreements on major applications has been refreshing and successful in prescribing timeframe and setting milestones to be achieved. That has included identifying a specific planning committee that an application would be presented to.
We can report a very positive recent experience on an 821-unit managed student accommodation development in Belfast City Centre for MRP that will bring
transformative regeneration to a much run down and too long neglected part of the city at the meeting point of Castle Street, Queen Street and Fountain Street.
That followed significant engagement with the Council and its consultees through a highly collaborative PAD. It secured a priority across senior officers that was key to securing consensus on design. We are seeing that same positive and proactive approach elsewhere on a range of major developments that we are preparing applications for elsewhere within the city which is very encouraging.
Planning in Northern Ireland works best where there is strong leadership and a desire to want to work collaboratively to secure high quality, sustainable development that will make a tangible difference to the economic prosperity of our communities.
There is however a wider logjam and stretched resources that are inhibiting positive change. That is particularly true of wider Council planning teams and consultees, most notably in NIEA and across many Council Environmental Health teams.
DfI needs to consider innovative approaches to make the system better which are already in its armoury – appointing experienced independent Commissioners to fast track regionally significant and called in applications and to undertake
Public Examinations of local Council Plans. It needs to listen and respond to the frustrations of business and of regular users of the planning system.
“ Planning works best where there is strong leadership and a desire to want work collaboratively to secure high quality, sustainable development that will make a tangible difference to the economic prosperity of our communities. ”
We have many challenges – creating the conditions for much more residential development in Belfast city, delivering more private and affordable housing and moving towards net zero and 80% of electricity from renewables by 2030! DfI needs to move the policy needle to place substantial weight on contributing towards the net zero target and elevate the importance of key projects above subjective landscape and visual concerns.
If you are planning development, we would very much like to help you navigate our planning system and deliver you to where you want to be – holding a value generating green sheet.
We hope you enjoy our latest newsletter. Enjoy!
Clyde
TIME TO FRESHEN UP OUR BRAND
Clyde Shanks entered its 14th year in business in September and it is quite incredible to think where that time has gone.
We have certainly made our mark across Northern Ireland in that time with many pleasing developments still going strong from our first big win in securing permission for the Multiplex cinema at Craigavon for the Turkington Group, guiding the Royal Ulster Agricultural Society to its new home at Balmoral Park and securing the changes to the Dunluce links and all infrastructural upgrades to facilitate the Open championship return to Royal Portrush in 2019.
We have secured permission for the largest Anerobic Digestion facility on these islands at Ballymena for Stream Bioenergy, many megawatts of renewable energy for major windfarm operators and single turbines and been very active across the agrifood sector for Moypark, Northway Mushrooms, Dale Farm and Glanbia to name a few.
At last count our team have secured planning permission for almost 5000 dwellings and we continue to perform well across new housing developments across NI with one if not the largest planning application coming forward for Neptune Carleton LLP in Blaris, Lisburn. That application is for c.1300 dwellings, including 20% affordable housing, and almost one million square feet of a range of employment floorspace including private healthcare use
We feel the time had come to revisit and refresh our brand identity. When we started back in 2011 we created a stand out typographic style with a strong black and white imagery. That included the tag line of what we do with the simple addition of ‘Planning Development’ in a box below the company name.
Our identity has served us well and we believe we are now recognised in the NI marketplace as a successful and established planning consultancy. We have earned a reputation for dealing with complex planning challenges and getting results for a wide ranging client portfolio. We are resourced and equipped to navigate our increasingly complex planning process with a focused and hard-working team inhouse.
Our new brand drops the planning development clarification which has served us well and elegantly reasserts our identity and our confident, knowledge based approach. That includes integration of the Royal Town Planning Institute chartered town planning consultancy logo on our business stationery as a seal of professional distinction in what we do and the services we provide.
CONTINUED TOURISM SUCCESSES
Tourism developments have continued to be a strong part of our work portfolio with continued demand across the sector.
That has seen us secure expansions to existing caravan sites in Portstewart, Portrush, Bryansford and Ballycastle and more recently engaging with Belfast City Council in a positive PAD in advance of a full planning application for Yotel’s first hotel in Northern Ireland at Botanic Avenue in Belfast.
It is great to see the new 5* Dunluce Lodge development overlooking the fourth fairway at Royal Portrush now trading. That brings a luxury 35 bed boutique hotel and spa with the design replicating the original house on the site and set within a mature and richly landscaped setting.
It is the first 5* hotel to open on the Causeway Coast in advance of the much anticipated return of the Open championship to Royal Portrush in July 2025.
The site is looking superb with substantial earthworks and landscape planting now being applied to add a mature setting to the wonderful new accommodation in the new main lodge and courtyard accommodation, the annex and the spa building. The new access and footpath to Dunluce Road are in place and there will be expansive new planting and landscaping onsite to replace trees that had to be removed to create the necessary sightlines to the road.
The new facility will undoubtedly increase the dwell time of international visitors to the Causeway Coast which will bring a hugely positive shot in the arm for the local economy.
Dunluce Lodge
Yotel
CHALLENGING HOUSING SECTOR
Throughout 2024 Clyde Shanks has continued to act and deliver for a large number of volume housebuilders across Northern Ireland. That is despite a difficult infrastructural landscape with ongoing capacity issues relating to wastewater connections and need to seek solutions with NI Water involving waste water impact assessments.
Clients continue to be attracted to our full-service offer, which evaluates sites from a standing start (in the form of planning appraisals), assisting in the appointments of a suitably experienced technical and environmental team, assessing site and wider contextual constraints/opportunities and identifying any potential risks, whilst handling all aspects of the planning process in a proactive and commercial manner.
As lead agents for planning applications, we initiate the Proposal of Application Notice (PAN) process to Councils, engage in and manage all aspects of the statutory requirements for public consultation and complete the accompanying Pre-Application Community Consultation (PACC) report. Separately, if necessary we engage Councils
in Pre-Application Discussions (PAD) seeking to secure consensus on matters of planning principle, design and layout and planning policy compliance in advance of a planning application being submitted.
Managing the public consultation and stakeholder engagement enables us as planning professionals to engage with the wider design team in collating very high-quality visual material to showcase what we are proposing and how it has been considered in the context of the development plan and all other material considerations.
In preparing public consultation information boards and Design and Access Statements (DAS), we are able to combine our planning expertise with our in-house graphic design skills together with architectural input to create very high-quality persuasive material. We take time and care to ensure that the proposal is well articulated, reader friendly and that we are in attendance to clearly present the development proposal.
In terms of our recent planning successes in this sector, we have secured hundreds of residential units within the last twelve months. That includes successes in Hillsborough, Scarva, Ballyclare, Belfast and Portglenone.
RESPONDING TO NIEA ON A CASE BY CASE BASIS
Clyde Shanks continue to act for companies and individual farmers across the Northern Ireland agri-food sector who are constantly striving for environmental improvement in their pursuit to supply locally produced food.
Navigating the planning system has recently proven to be challenging in an ever changing landscape of environmental regulation.
Producing food from livestock results in certain by-products that can, if not managed correctly, have an adverse impact on the environment, particularly at site’s designated for environmental protection.
In December 2023, The Department of Agriculture Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA) confirmed that the Northern Ireland Environment Agency (NIEA) must no longer rely on published Ammonia Standing Advice as the basis for statutory advice on planning applications.
As a result, the NIEA immediately altered its approach and instead offered planning authorities with case and site-specific advice, on a case-by-case basis. This approach is set to continue until such times as a new ammonia strategy and updated standing advice has been agreed and is in place. There is currently no date currently set in stone for the adoption of a new ammonia strategy.
When assessing the impact of proposals on sensitive habitats from ammonia deposition, it is now necessary to demonstrate compliance with a Site Relevant Threshold (SRT) which is derived on a site-by-site basis taking account of the characteristics and specific environmental conditions at the site in question.
Clyde Shanks are at the forefront of these and provide clients with an assured and experienced team that will navigate the planning system requirements for agrifood proposals including, poultry, pigs and dairy farming proposals.
Notwithstanding the challenges facing the agri-food sector, Clyde Shanks continue to provide expert up to date advice to clients in order to prepare robust planning applications that are frontloaded with the necessary technical assessments in order to give applications the best possible chance of success and to be processed expediently by Local Councils.
Glanbia Expansion
MAJOR DEVELOPMENT
River Laggan
Tata Steel
In December we secured Council resolution to grant planning permission for a truly transformational new student development on Castle Street/ Queen Street/Fountain Street, Belfast, that will provide over 800 new accommodation units. That is set to inject much needed life and vitality into a chronically run down part of the city centre.
We have submitted an exciting new 164 bed hotel development application that will see the introduction of Yotel to Northern Ireland. That promises a much needed regeneration of a neglected site at a key meeting point of Botanic Avenue, Dublin Road, Donegall Pass and Great Victoria Street.
We will also in quarter 1 of 2025 submit an outline planning application on behalf of Neptune Carleton LLP for c.1300 dwellings and almost 1 million sq.ft of a range of employment uses following our earlier securing of full permission for the £18million M1-Knockmore link road.
Blaris Road
Riverside Park
Riverside Park
Riverside Park
Approved M1 Knockmore Link Road
U411
Park & Ride
Blaris Cemetery
Avonmore
RENEWABLES
80% RENEWABLE ELECTRICITY BY 2030 – NEEDS A STRENGTHENED PLANNING POLICY
Over the last twelve months Clyde Shanks has continued to act for a wide variety of energy companies seeking to widen their portfolio of renewable energy generation schemes in Northern Ireland as well as individuals seeking to reduce their reliance on energy generated from traditional fossil fuel sources.
For the year ending June 2024, 45.8% of total electricity consumption in Northern Ireland was generated from renewable sources. This indicates that there is a significant way to go to achieve the target of at least 80% by 2030 as set out in the The Climate Change Act (Northern Ireland) 2022.
Notably, of all renewable electricity generated, 82.3% was generated from wind. Clyde Shanks continue to manage a significant portfolio of planning applications for large scale wind energy development proposals with our most recent submission of a full planning application for Energia for a windfarm development at Clunahill in Co.Tyrone. These figures also highlight the need to bring forward other forms of renewable energy proposals such as Solar PV.
We have also seen a significant increase in the number of Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) proposals and have submitted several applications in 2024 for a range of clients including Electric Land and Lagan Group. BESS brings significant environmental benefits through the stabilisation of our electricity infrastructure and helps to support increased renewable energy generation.
Clyde Shanks has an enviable track record for securing planning permission for Anaerobic Digestion (AD) and bioenergy schemes. Given the well publicised issues surrounding Blue Green Algae and water quality in Lough Neagh, we are working with both existing and new clients to implement measures to better manage, recycle and reuse organic nutrients generated by AD plants to reduce the impact on our environment while continuing to generate renewable energy.
Since the closure of the Northern Ireland Renewables Obligation in 2017 there has been no replacement support scheme for renewable energy developments in Northern Ireland. It is clear that substantial change is required in order to meet the 2030 target and whilst the Department for the Economy issued a consultation
to gather insights for the development of a Renewable Electricity Support Scheme (RESS) in February 2023 there is no date set in stone for when RESS will be rolled out.
Notwithstanding the lack of support scheme, we continue to offer our clients a high quality professional service and are well positioned to navigate the planning process to secure desirable results for our clients.
INCREASED DEMAND FOR LIQUOR LICENCES
Clyde Shanks is highly respected in the local hospitality sector and offers experienced expert witness skills in securing applications for liquor licences before the Courts.
Liquor licensing legislation in Northern Ireland requires the Court to be satisfied in relation to an assessment of the vicinity of a subject premises, the demand in vicinity and from those resorting to it for alcoholic product and for an applicant to demonstrate evidence of an inadequacy of provision within the vicinity.
We work with various firms of solicitors across NI including McKees, Mills Selig, and Carson McDowell amongst others and with a range of experienced barristers in helping clients to secure that much prized granting of the licence.
Our success has included securing new licences in Centra, Vivo and Mace stores in Banbridge, Cookstown, Carn, Dromore and Kilrea as well as in-store in mixed trading stores in Donegall Street (adjacent to the new University of Ulster campus) and Clifton Street in Belfast.
More quirkily, we were delighted to advise National Museums NI in enhancing their offer at the Ulster Folk Museum at Cultra which will see the long established McCuskers pub exhibit become a licensed public house with its existing courtyard transformed in to an external licensed space. That will make a significant contribution in the NMNI’s reimagining of this unique tourism and educational asset.
Over the last year there has been a substantial rise in contested applications and we have been involved in the County Court and High Court proposing and objecting to applications for liquor licences as expert planning witness dealing with evidence on vicinity and adequacy of provision for a range of clients.
That has involved acting for an independent retailer in Lisburn in securing the grant of provisional licence in the County Court and then defending an appeal brought against it by Winemark in the High Court.
It has also seen us act across a number of sites for Winemark in objecting to proposals by Lidl, Asda and Iceland in Dundonald, at Monkstown and at Longwood Retail Park as well as examining proposals by independent retailers in a number of locations also in Dundonald.
Our role is to prepare and present the expert planning witness case that principally examines the legal tests of vicinity and inadequacy that the Courts have a statutory duty to assess.
There are further Court appearances planned for 2025 as this sector continues to be a strong source of new instructions.
RENEWABLES
80% RENEWABLE ELECTRICITY BY 2030
– NEEDS A STRENGTHENED PLANNING POLICY
In addition to our contribution to securing key tourism developments on the Causeway Coast, we have been delighted to play a major role in facilitating the necessary changes to Royal Portrush’s Dunluce links to enable the return of the Open championship in 2019. It is quite astonishing how time has flown by and that this global event is returning once again to these shores in July 2025, just a few months away.
In addition to securing the necessary planning permission for the changes to the course, including the new 7th and 8th holes and a new £1.5 million maintenance compound embedded in the sand dunes, we have co-ordinated a critical planning application for Royal Portrush Golf Club to secure vital additional rock armour to protect the iconic 6th tee from terminal erosion caused by extreme storm events.
That involved co-ordination of an Environmental Statement included related Habitats Regulations
Assessment and a follow up section 54 application to address changes in modelling frequency requested by NIEA Marine and Licensing Department.
We finally secured planning permission despite objection from Marine And Licensing Division of NIEA which left us with a final hurdle of obtaining a marine licence from them. That too proved to be a drawn out process but thankfully we prevailed and secured the necessary approval to enable construction works on the Whiterocks beach to be done by local contractor, Northstone in February and March 2024. Pleasingly, subsequent monitoring data of the beach has confirmed that there has been no adverse change to the sediment regime as a consequence of the development.
Having played a key part on one of our globally iconic golf links we are proud to be advising our other key golfing gem, Royal County Down, on proposed modifications to their course layout and engaging NIEA and Newry Mourne and Down District Council in pre-application discussions and look forward to make further progress and move to an application submission in the latter part of 2025.
ARC 21 - SUSTAINABLE WASTE MANAGEMENT
80% RENEWABLE ELECTRICITY BY 2030 – NEEDS A STRENGTHENED PLANNING POLICY
There is every prospect that 2025 will finally deliver planning permission for arc21’s integrated waste management facility at Hightown Quarry, Mallusk. That is the view of one of the waste industry’s sectoral analysts ENDS Waste & Bioenergy (EWB).
It highlights the importance of the arc21 proposal, which offers an overall capacity to sustainably handle 300,000 tonnes of waste per annum, for the future of Northern Ireland’s waste management. That focuses on the importance of delivering local infrastructure in the face of growing environmental and economic challenges.
It reports that new regulatory developments in waste export and landfill taxes in 2025 may prove the final impetus for a project that has been stuck in the planning system for over 10 years.
Clyde Shanks has advised arc21 and its preferred bidder, Indaver, throughout that time. That has seen us secure three recommendations to approve from planning officials in first DoE and more recently DfI and endorsement through a report of recommendation to approve following a public inquiry before the Planning Appeals Commission in 2016. Notwithstanding this background the project remains under consideration by DfI planning.
It has been the subject of two judicial review challenges. The first of these followed the former DoE Planning decision to approve full planning permission, subsequently deemed unlawful in the absence of a Minister – the ‘Buick’ judgement.
The second and more recent was brought by arc21 to Minister Mallon’s decision to refuse, contrary to professional planner advice in April 2022. DfI conceded this challenge and in doing so accepted that Minister Mallon’s decision was irrational.
These legal challenges explain the delay which in turn has had implications for the timeliness of the baseline Environmental Impact Assessment. This has been under regular review with environmental and technical surveys updated to ensure they are robust and current.
EWB has examined a number of energy from waste plants within the planning system across these islands and has ranked the arc21 application at number 2 in its top 10 of EfW projects most likely to progress in 2025. It is the only project outside of England placed in the top 10 which reflects the relative maturity and scale of the GB market where there are 58 EfW plants in operation and 14 more under construction compared to Northern Ireland.
The high rating accorded by EWB reflects the fact that the project has been specifically designed to meet the needs of six of Northern Ireland’s largest Councils and to address a clear capacity gap in the Northern Ireland energy recovery market to manage NI residual household waste in a sustainable manner.
As capacity for the disposal of waste by landfill reduces and more stringent Circular economy targets take effect Northern Ireland is presently exporting over 200,000 tonnes per annum of waste to large parts of Europe to fuel Energy from Waste plants there. Continuing to do so is fundamentally unsustainable and flies in the face of proximity, self-sufficiency and efficiency principles.
It is happening due to the absence of local integrated waste infrastructure such as that which is proposed by the £240million arc21 Hightown quarry facility. There is quite literally no more time to waste. We are making a further ES addendum submission to DfI in the first quarter of 2025 and look forward to seeing EWB’s prediction being realised.
POLICY AFFORDABLE HOUSING POLICIES
New Affordable housing policy is rolling out in the slow emergence of replacement Local Development Plans appearing across NI’s 11 Councils.
To date four Councils have progressed to adoption of the first stage of the two stage Local Development Plan process. That involves introduction of new strategic planning policies within their respective Plan Strategy documents.
The four frontrunners with adopted Strategy Plans in place are Fermanagh and Omagh District Council, Mid and East Antrim Borough Council, Belfast City Council and Lisburn and Castlereagh City Council.
The approach varies across each area. Both Belfast City Council and Lisburn and Castlereagh City Council have adopted a requirement for a minimum of 20% affordable housing on sites proposing more than 5 dwellings although LCCC is based on housing need being identified through the respective Housing Needs Assessment. Elsewhere Mid and
East Antrim Borough Council requires 10% on sites delivering more than 40 dwellings with Fermanagh requiring 10% provision where more than 10 dwellings are proposed
Belfast City Council has reinforced its policy with a raft of supplementary planning guidance to assist with decision making and interpretation of new planning policy.
Its Policy HOU5, requires the provision of a minimum of 20% of affordable housing on sites greater than 0.1 hectares in size or more than 5 dwellings. That needs to be considered alongside the requirements of Policy HOU6; Housing mix, placing an onus on applicants to demonstrate compliance.
Affordable housing includes social rented housing, intermediate housing for sale or intermediate housing for rent.
The Council’s Supplementary Planning Guidance ‘Affordable Housing and housing mix’ was published in May 2022. It has become a much leafed through document for applicants, developers and decision makers.
One thing is certain is that major change in the structure and delivery of how we develop housing is here to stay and needs to be factored in to land acquisition and overall project costing in the future. “ “
The implementation of the affordable housing policy requires a collaborative effort from a number of key stakeholders with a focus on Belfast City Council, the Northern Ireland Housing Executive, Department for Communities, Registered Housing Associations, Department for Infrastructure and Developers.
It places an evidential pressure to demonstrate actual housing need to NIHE particularly where the policy is seeking to deliver a minimum % and there is a clear Council aspiration to deliver a greater percentage in the areas where there is an evidently higher level of need.
The SPG sets out commentary on scheme viability and in cases where an applicant considers they are unable to comply with the affordable housing policy requirements without rendering their development unviable. That involves assessment of land value, construction costs, reasonable developer return and the costs of policy compliance.
Where an applicant can demonstrate to the satisfaction of the Council that they are unable to meet the affordable housing requirements in full due to viability concerns the Council will
negotiate to agree suitable alternatives on a case by case basis. That may include provision off site, a reduction in the number of units required as affordable housing on site or financial contributions in lieu of affordable provision, also known as ‘commuted sums’.
Section 76 agreements with specific triggers to ensure that the affordable housing and/or commuted sums will be delivered at key stages and will not be delivered significantly in advance of, or later than, market housing will remain a common feature in negotiated workable solutions for developer and decision maker.
One thing is certain is that major change in the structure and delivery of how we develop housing is here to stay and needs to be factored in to land acquisition and overall project costing in the future.
SECTION 76 AGREEMENTS
2024 has been the year of the section 76 agreement and Clyde Shanks has been involved in several of these, principally with Belfast City Council but also Antrim and Newtownabbey Borough Council having navigated planning committee and secured a resolution to grant planning permission subject to execution of a section 76 legal agreement.
Our experience has involved working with a number of highly respected law firms across Belfast, including Carson McDowell, Arthur Cox and O’Reilly Stewart to work through the necessary detail and in particular assist to draft the wording of planning obligations that are placed on the developer to ensure that the approved development is brought forward in a planned and efficient manner.
Each development is different and the requirements could range from signing up to employability and local skills training as part of the construction of the development, to obligating to revisiting financial viability assessments prior to a commencement of development where affordable housing provision has not been able to be delivered due to very constrained levels of construction viability.
Other examples involve delivering certain elements of a proposed development by agreed trigger points. Our securing of planning permission for 33 units at the former Belvoir hospital site in Belfast has involved sequencing new build development to enable phased investment in the conversion of listed pavilion buildings. That will ensure the retention and revitalisation of historic buildings on site as part of major conservation and regeneration planning gain.
The experience to date has been slow with improvements in communication between Council planning teams and their in-house legal advisers necessary to move much more quickly to realising important new development and the critical boost it brings to the local economy. There are encouraging signs that this is slowly improving and we hope for faster turnarounds in 2025.
CJ FRY
Recent legal judgements have shone a light on the importance of lawfully implementing hard won planning permissions.
Securing outline and full planning permission is generally the subject of pre-commencement planning conditions. It is now imperative to keep these closely under review and move promptly to discharge conditions with the local planning authority.
Recent case law confirms an increasing trend of planning permissions becoming unstuck as a consequence of planning conditions being a fertile ground and focus for objectors.
What is now known as the CJ Fry case involved a reserved matters submission for a latter phase of an approved housing development being refused on basis that no appropriate assessment addressing requirements of the Habitats Regulation Assessment had been prepared.
It was confirmed by the Court of Appeal that such assessment applies at reserved matters stage but is also applicable to the consideration of discharging respective planning conditions.
That places a renewed focus on understanding what planning conditions actually entail and being alive to being able to discharge these within the time period of the extant planning permission or seeking to vary the wording of the conditions under a section 54 planning application.
It is critical to try and secure sight of draft conditions before these are committed to in a formal decision notice and if the local Authority does not share this undertake an early review of the conditions on securing permission to assess the wording and the ease of securing formal discharge of conditions. That involves an assessment of the level of planning risk and programme involved to prepare any further surveys and notably ecological assessment that may be necessary.
CONTRIBUTING LOCALLY
As a business we like to give back and make a contribution where we can in the communities that our team are from.
We continued our shirt sponsorship for the Wallace High School first X1 boys hockey team and its tour to Edinburgh in 2024. We were thrilled to see this young side perform so well in this year’s allIreland schoolboys hockey tournament in Dublin, losing narrowly in the Herbie Sharman final to St Andrews.
We are also sponsors of the student table at this year’s RTPI conference dinner and also continued our tee sponsorship at Bushfoot Golf Club and pitch side sponsorship at Coleraine Football Club.
We have also been delighted to support our clients and professional contacts in raising funds for much needed charities across a wide range of organised events and activities.
TEAM PROFILE
SUSANNAH BOYCE, PLANNER
I joined the Clyde Shanks team in August 2023. I was thrilled to be offered the role of Planner at Clyde Shanks after gaining valuable experience during my placement year working for Lisburn and Castlereagh City Council.
In the past 16 months, I have worked on a wide range of planning projects, from new housing proposals across Northern Ireland, new hotels for Galgorm Group on Ormeau Road in Belfast and the 5-star Dunluce Lodge adjacent to Royal Portrush Golf Club, wind turbine, battery energy storage and major waste infrastructure development for arc21.
Some of the most notable achievements have been discharging a series of pre-commencement conditions in a timely manner to enable development to commence prior to expiration of permission and preparing for, as well as observing, liquor licensing hearings in both the County Court and the High Court. Liaising with solicitors and working with very experienced Senior Counsel has been an excellent experience so early in my time here.
A typical day for me involves tracking live applications and updating the team on their progress, liaising with various Council planning officers, preparing applications for submission, and consulting with clients and wider professional consultants that we co-ordinate.
Not every day is spent in the office with site visits to potential sites, meetings with clients, and hosting public consultation events across Northern Ireland a regular part of my role.
My first year wouldn’t have been as enjoyable without the fantastic team I’ve joined. I was warmly welcomed to the office, (starting with a Bunsen Burger lunch - a favourite of the CS team), and have settled in easily.
I have learned a great deal from my colleagues and can always count on their support. A particular highlight of my first year was the CS team trip to Edinburgh for Christmas Dinner where we enjoyed cocktails at a 5* hotel and lunch overlooking Edinburgh Castle – all courtesy of our generous Managing Director! We had an equally great trip to Manchester to close out 2024 which was also a wonderful experience, including an excellent guided tour of the history of the city.
These initial months in my planning career have been exciting, and I look forward to continuing to grow professionally with the backing of such a great team and continuing to work to progress some of the best and most exciting development projects across Northern Ireland.
