Belfast Local Development Plan (LDP) draft Plan Strategy (DPS) had been published for consultation on 23rd August and it had previously been agreed to keep the timetable under review to consider progress to date and the next stages in the process.
Whilst approval for publication of the DPS had been granted by the Council in June, it had been agreed to delay the launch until the end of the summer break to enhance the potential engagement and responses.
Due to the revised launch date for the DPS, it was likely that the full DPS consultation stage, including collation of representations and reporting to Councillors, would be completed by March 2019.
Following this, the DPS, all associated documents and all representations received must be collated and submitted to the Department for Infrastructure in May 2019. Following its consideration of the documents, DfI would then refer the DPS to the Planning Appeals Commission (PAC) for the Independent Examination stage.
DfI had recently indicated that its consideration of the document should take up to six weeks, meaning that the DPS and all documents would be issued to the PAC by the end June, 2019.