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Mr. John D. Taylor: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many qualified town planners are employed in the planningservice currently; what was the level five years ago; when preparation of the Ards Area Plan will commence; when preparation of theNorth Down Area Plan will commence; and if he will make a statement on resources available to the Planning Service to review theArea Plan Programme. [94374]Mr. George Howarth: Responsibility for the subject in question has been delegated to the Planning Service under its Chief Executive,Mr. H. S. McKay. I have asked him to arrange for a reply to be given.Letter from H. S. McKay to Mr. John D. Taylor, dated 22 October 1999:The Secretary of State has asked me to reply to your recent Question about staffing levels and the resources available to thePlanning Service for Area Plan work.For the purpose of the answer, "qualified town planners" are taken to mean those staff who possess either MRTPI membership or apost-graduate diploma in Planning, or a degree qualification in Planning. Based on these criteria, there are currently 137"qualified" planners (excluding temporary staff) employed by the Planning Service. Regrettably, historical information to this levelof detail is not available.Work started on the Ards Area Plan in January 1999. Work on the Belfast Metropolitan Plan, which will encompass the North DownBorough Council area, is currently scheduled in the Department's Area Plan Programme to commence in the 2000/01 financial year. ThisProgramme is, however, reviewed annually and will be revisited in the forthcoming months when preparing the 2000/01 Business Plan.Progress with the review of the Area Plan Programme is determined by the resources allocated to this work in the context of theAgency's Corporate and Business Plans as approved by the Minister. The Plans cover the whole range of the Agency's functions and keyperformance targets, which include the drafting and adoption of specific Plans in this business year, set priorities. In principle,the resources allocated to the Agency are sufficient to deliver these targets although other factors can come into play and affectthe outcome.I do hope this is helpful. |