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Lady Hermon: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland when the West Tyrone area plan will be published. [198282]Angela Smith: In recent months the Planning Service has been reviewing the rapidly increasing and unprecedented workload pressuresbeing faced by the Agency. After careful consideration of the available options, it has been decided to concentrate as much of theAgencies resources as possible for a period of time, initially for six months, on the operational side of the business, where thereare clear legal obligations to meet.The reallocation of staff will, however, have a knock- on effect on emerging area plans. Resources are available to permit continuedwork on those plans which are at an advanced stage in the preparation process. However, progress on the remaining area plans,including West Tyrone, will be slower then previously programmedThe importance of delivering full area plan coverage is recognised and the Planning Service will move forward with the area planprogramme as quickly as is feasible. At this point in time it is not possible to say precisely when this will be. Much will dependon how quickly the pressure on the operational side can be reduced. An announcement on revised timescales for the Area Planprogramme, including the West Tyrone Area Plan, will be made in due course. |