Belfast, Derry identified as growth areas

A number of instances of cross-Border co-operation, including the development of Derry city as the growth hub of the north-west, were outlined by planners from the Department of Environment in Northern Ireland at a seminar in Dublin yesterday.

Mr Denis Glass, the North's director of regional planning, told the conference that as part of a 25-year plan for sustainable development, his department was looking at a number of cross-Border options.

These included the development of the Belfast/Dublin economic corridor, joint access to the ports of Rosslare and Larne, the importance of Derry and Enniskillen as a major regional centre and key growth centre respectively, and the development of transport links and tourism.

Mr Glass said the North's Regional Strategy Framework 20002025 had already identified transport, trade, tourism and networking as areas for potential growth. Externally, this would include the access to the Continent, energy and tourism links with the South.

Internally, there was still some way to go to improve cohesion of relationships between communities but his strategy was drawn up under the Belfast Agreement and included developing "neutral" town centres.

This also means that development should be spread evenly across the mainly unionist and Protestant east to the mainly Catholic and nationalist west of the region.

The spatial plan for the North identified Belfast and Derry as the major growth areas, with "key" growth centres at Newry, Craigavon, Ballymena, Coleraine, Ballycastle, Strabane and Limavady.

He said in the past the problems encountered included dispersal of population and resources in a haphazard way, declining inner-urban areas, infrastructural pressures and long-distance commuting, much as the Republic's regions were experiencing.

The commuting distance around Belfast was, he said, now 26 to 30 miles, which equated with Dublin. While the development of Belfast was limited by the mountains and the sea, the continued expansion of the city created "big sustainability issues" for the planners.

The new framework would have to be community focused and would have to reconcile growth with quality of life and have an integrated approach to public transport.

In common with the South, the North was experiencing a huge demand for housing as new, smaller households were created. Housing should be developed not as green field sites but where possible as "brown field" sites which represented urban regeneration.

In environmental terms the priorities were clean land, water and air which contributed to the potential of the region for tourism. Here again was potential for co-operation with the South he said.