The Draft Northern Area Plan 2016 is a huge document, but I wish to refer to one small part of it.
The Plan is asking us to consider the proposal to zone a particular parcel of land for housing in Bushmills (Code BSH10). [Off Eagry] The trouble is, in spite of the document stating there was no house building work in Bushmills in July 2004, construction on this site for 66 homes had begun six months earlier in January 2004. And Planning Permission had been approved nine months before that July 2004 date. Roads laid out, the main sewers had been laid and many of the dwellings well underway, two had reached second floor. But we’ll allow the authors of this report to not have spotted this large construction site. It was probably just an oversight. These things happen in the best of circles.

However, this omission raises an interesting, possibly unique, circumstance. For here we have a ‘rehearsal’ of how the Planning Department will respond to the outcome of any deliberations on the Draft Plan.

The Plan states, “The following sites are zoned for housing development subject to compliance with the key site requirements…”
And the key requirement for this BHS10 (Off Eagry) development is…”The development proposals must take account of the designated watercourse, Saint Columb’s Rill, which passes along the eastern boundary of the site and fully protect and enhance its environmental and landscape quality.” (My emphasis) St. Columb’s Rill is the sole source of water for the nearby Distillery

So what happened in this case? Over the course of two years the Environmental Heritage Agency of the DoE wrote no less than three times to the Coleraine Planners asking that a 10metre “No Development” wildlife zone be applied to the bank of the stream. On the first two occasions their plea was ignored and in response to their third letter the then Divisional Planning Manager (Mr J. Cavelleros) wrote…”…. It would be unreasonable to seek further amendments to the scheme….” And he signed off the proposal thus allowing a road to be built running parallel with the Rill, with 80m of embankment encroaching into that zone and at one point the embankment coming within two metres of the bank. The 10m wildlife no-development wildlife zone request was totally ignored.

So will I be responding to the Draft Northern Area plan 2016? Of course not. If that is how the Coleraine Planners go against and ignore recommendations from their own DoE Environmental Heritage Service to “ fully protect and enhance the stream’s environmental and landscape quality”. Then what hope has the individual to influence a draft plan? This Plan is just a paper exercise to pretend the public matters, but is just a waste of time and taxpayers’ money. Planners will go ahead and do their own thing no matter what the outcome.

Brian Willis
Bushmills