Local planners show rest a clean pair of heels

Mid & East Antrim Council's planners have raced ahead of the rest when compared to all other councils on local applications.

The figures were released by Councillor Lindsay Millar, Chair of Mid and East Antrim Borough Council’s Planning Committee.

Cllr Millar, who is ione of the youngest committee chairs of all the 11 councils in Northern Ireland, said: “Recent Department of Infrastructure data which relate to the period April 2016 to June 2016 - the latest available figures – show that Mid and East Antrim had the shortest average processing time for local applications in Northern Ireland.

“The target date is 15 weeks and Mid and East Antrim achieved 9.8 weeks. I would also add that this is an improvement on the same period last year where the average time was 14 weeks,” Cllr Millar said.

In fact, the average time in Mid and East Antrim is even lower, just on nine weeks, which is also an achievement, especially as it is assessed on a constant, on-going basis.

Mid and East Antrim Borough Council has been consistently excelling with a much shorter turn-round time than was previously the case under the Department of Environment NI (DoE) NI.

The previous 72 week timetable for the same type of applications under the Department of Environment NI is therefore eclipsed by these figures.

The longest comparable decision’s period in returns recorded for other councils was just over 27 weeks - which while being well under the 72 weeks under DoE management - means the figure is almost three times as long as planners in Mid and East Antrim Borough Council are taking to achieve. Local planners are therefore by far the best performing.

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