To ask the Minister for Infrastructure, pursuant to AQW 30778/22-27, for her assessment of the progress made by the new councils, created in 2015, towards creating Local Development Plans.

Councils in the North have made good progress developing their new Local Development Plans (LDPs).

Nine out of the eleven councils here have published development plan documents, six of which, have adopted Plan Strategies and are working towards their Local Policies Plan publication. Council timetables indicate that the remaining two councils are due to publish draft Plan Strategy documents within the next year.

The progress to date includes the significant work carried out by councils and stakeholders to progress preparation of LDP documents including the gathering of evidence, the consideration of complex environmental issues, or indeed the extensive engagement between my Department and councils to front load the system.

I am committed to a Planning Improvement Programme and as part of this, my Department is working in collaboration with councils to identify measures to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the LDP process. While this is ongoing, my officials continue to work closely with councils to support them with their LDP preparation.