Planning reform in everyone's interests: Parsley

12.00.00am BST (GMT +0100) Mon 25th Apr 2005

Echoing party colleague Geraldine Rice speaking on the BBC's 'Seven Days' programme, Young Alliance Chairman Ian James Parsley has stated that planning reform is in everyone's interests.

The local government candidate in Holywood stated: "We have a scourge across County Down -- one obvious example in Craigavad and another in Groomsport - of people putting up buildings before planning permission has even been granted. Yet you will very seldom see them taken down due to a loophole in the system which allows constant re-applications.

"This is a nonsense which has to be stopped immediately. The fact is the current system suits no one. Those with legitimate proposals face constant delays. Those who work so hard for conservation area status in towns like Holywood see that status rendered almost irrelevant. Building continues to cause congestion on 'protected routes' such as the A2 Belfast-Bangor road.

"All this while there are large rooms a big house on a hill in East Belfast lying unoccupied! Since the 1970s the Alliance Party has advocated a form of power-sharing devolution with cross-border links which was workable then and is workable now. Such an arrangement would enable us to deal with this issue and many others. So what, precisely, are we waiting for?"

ENDS