Prof Geraint Ellis (QUB) The Northern Ireland planning system is now primarily seen as a mechanism for coordinating and facilitating development, with the aim of delivering opportunities for economic growth. However, in managing our built environment, it also plays a major – but often unseen – role in shaping peoples’ lives by creating (or constraining) … Read more
Dr Stephen McKay (QUB) The Northern Ireland planning system has witnessed major reform in 2015, with key responsibilities being transferred to new local authorities. There are far-reaching consequences of this relating to the future management of development and the production of a new generation of area plans. This will also have an impact on arrangements … Read more
Mrs Emily Smyth (Ulster) The European Landscape Convention commits the Northern Ireland government since 2007 to recognising landscape as a common resource to which everyone has rights and responsibilities for culture, quality of life and individual and social wellbeing, and economic activity; that changes in the economy accelerate landscape transformation; and that cooperation in protection, … Read more
Dr Heather Ritchie and Prof Greg Lloyd (Ulster) The island of Ireland, though physically small, faces big institutional challenges for the delivery of a sustainable blue energy future. Challenges stem from separate governance regimes across the island; with several government departments controlling functions across planning and regulation. Marine Spatial Planning (MSP) is established as an … Read more
Prof J. Andrew G Cooper (Ulster) Recent storms on the Northern Ireland coast have caused widespread flooding and coastal erosion. Erosion threatens buildings, roads, railways and other infrastructure, but is also a vital natural process that sustains beaches, and is essential to maintenance of a healthy coastal ecosystem. Societal responses to erosion include: (a) hard … Read more
Dr Karl O’Connor (Ulster) If greater powers are to be devolved to our new super councils, what type of institutions will inherit these powers and how will these powers be used? Existing public administration research would lead to the expectation of greater bureaucrat involvement in the traditionally more mundane aspects of policy formulation, while in … Read more
Mr Gavan Rafferty and Prof Greg Lloyd (Ulster) The convergence of local government reform in both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland is occurring at a unique moment in the island’s history, allowing further consideration on how an inter-jurisdictional co-operative framework can foster collaborative decision making on cross boundary community planning issues. In Northern … Read more
Prof Colin Knox (Ulster) One of the key reforms in local government reorganisation is the statutory power of community planning, which has been described as the equivalent of Delivering Social Change (OFMDFM) at council level. There is however a dearth of information on how to take the principles of community planning from concept to practical … Read more