The Planning Appeals Commission (PAC) says while its performance is “not where it needs to be” it’s outlined an action plan to address developer and user issues.
Planners and developers have been critical of the organisation, particularly over the time taken to deal with appeals.
The commission has reiterated its position that it has lost many of its more experienced staff, and that around 75% of commissioners are “new to their roles”.
“This has had a significant impact on our capacity to deliver across all our workstreams,” chief commissioner, Andrea Kells, said in the organisation’s corporate plan for 2024/25.
“We have also relocated our office and introduced a new IT system enabling remote hearings and electronic working.
“Against this backdrop, which helps to explain the drop in performance, the commission is now moving forward and we are currently at the point whereby the investment in our resources is making a difference with yearly improvements in the number of decisions delivered.”
The PAC has previously told developers it was “experiencing significant resourcing pressures”.
Recently, RenewableNI said it was told the PAC won’t look at fresh appeals for renewable schemes in the system until 2025/26.
It says it has “engaged extensively with internal and external stakeholders”. “As a result of this engagement, the plan has an emphasis on performance and looking to the future.
“Within the lifetime of the last corporate plan, a significant number of individuals retired from the commission and with that, both knowledge and experience were lost across our administrative and professional teams.”
Looking at how it’s addressing concerns and delays, it says there will be a focus on performance and “looking towards the future”.
That includes an action plan to “identify and respond to cases which have lingered in the system”, focusing on the “increasing the quantum of cases disposed of with the aim of addressing timeliness issues in future years”, reallocating cases when a resource becomes available if it is “likely to lead to more timely decision-making”, and investing in both training and stakeholder engagement.
It also says it’s aiming to “reduce the backlog of cases which have been within the system for long periods of time”.
“We appreciate the patience of many of our customers as we address the significant number of cases that we still have in the system,” it says.
“We will attempt to communicate better with customers and the wider planning community in order that informed decisions can be made by parties to the process. We intend to make best use of current processes to ensure case management is handled effectively and introduce improvements as necessary.”