Northern Ireland

The business case for a new planning IT system will be published later this month and a start on procuring it should be under way by spring 2019, Northern Ireland’s chief planner Angus Kerr has announced in his latest update on current planning issues.

Two planning applications proposing major residential, commercial and infrastructure developments for a £250 million sustainable mixed-use neighbourhood at Blaris, Lisburn, have been lodged with Lisburn and Castlereagh City Council.

More than 160 key decisions and regulatory policy issues have piled up since the collapse of Stormont because there are no ministers to make decisions, a series of Freedom of Information requests by The Belfast Telegraph has revealed.

Ambitious plans to create a multimillion-pound ‘next-generation’ science park on the former St Patrick’s Barracks site in Ballymena are taking shape.