The number of planning appeals in Northern Ireland has surged over 600 per cent in five years, First Minister Ian Paisley revealed today.
The Rev Paisley (DUP, North Antrim) expressed concern that the appeal workload rose from 362 in 2002/3 to 2,765 in 2006/7 after a party colleague on his Assembly scrutiny committee claimed that the planning appeals process could strangle development in Northern Ireland.
Jim Wells (DUP, South Down) told the First Minister: "The Planning Appeals Commission, which you are responsible for appeals, are running at six times normal levels.
"I understand there are 2,800 appeals in the system and they are processing about 800 in a year.
"It doesn't take a genius to see that is going to cause huge difficulties to developers throughout the country. What can your office do to try and alleviate that logjam that threatens the development of the province?"
The DUP leader said the sharp increase was a very important matter which needed to be addressed.
"If we are going to face a 600 per cent increase, when are we going to get these cases fixed?" the First Minister replied.
"I think this is something which has been raised with us. We are all concerned about this because it is something that rests on our future.
"If we cannot get the job done planning-wise in getting things through, then we cannot build, then we cannot help anything in our infrastructure.
"The full-time commissioners came up from 14 to 21 over the same period which is adding to the money. The budget has increased from £1.2 million to £2 million over a five-year period.
"Planning applications are starting to reduce but there is a significant backlog that needs to be addressed. This matter is before us all. We will be looking very, very carefully to see if there is some way in breaking it."