About the Belfast Local Development Plan (LDP)

About the LDP

We are responsible for developing a Local Development Plan (LDP) for Belfast, working with local people, to create a clear vision of how the council area should develop and what it will look like in the years to come.

The Local Development Plan will:

• provide a 15-year plan framework to support economic and social needs in the city
• facilitate growth by coordinating public and private investment to encourage development where it can be of most benefit to the wellbeing of the community
• allocate sufficient land to meet the needs of the city
• provide an opportunity for all stakeholders, including the public, to have a say about where and how development within the local area should take place
• provide a plan-led framework for rational and consistent decision-making
• deliver the spatial aspects of The Belfast Agenda, the city's community plan.

Local Development Plan process

Ongoing engagement and community consultation is an important element of the Belfast Local Development Plan process ongoing alongside the work on the required Development Plan documentation and evidence base.

Here are the key pieces of work carried out so far: 

• Adoption of Plan Strategy (May 2023)
• Modifications to draft Plan Strategy
• Draft Plan Strategy (dPS) Submission
• Publication of Draft Plan Strategy responses for Counter Representations
• Consultation on Draft Plan Strategy
• Draft Plan Strategy Publication
• Preferred Options Paper (POP) Publication and Consultation
• AD001 Statement of Community Involvement (revised March 2018)
• AD002 Belfast Local Development Plan Timetable (revised November 2018)*

*The draft Plan Strategy was prepared and submitted in line with the Local Development Plan Timetable (November 2018). Following submission of the draft Plan Strategy to the Department for Infrastructure and Planning Appeals Commission, the timetable was revised to the Local Development Plan Timetable (July 2020). This will be subject to further review for the Local Policies Plan (LPP) stage.

The formal Development Plan documents, associated publications and evidence base are available to download from the Document Library.

Local Development Plan timetable

The Local Development Plan (LDP) timetable sets out the key stages and indicative timescales in the process to produce the Belfast Local Development Plan. 

It will help to make sure that the plan process is efficiently managed, and that the key stakeholders, including the consultation bodies and the Planning Appeals Commission (PAC), are kept informed and can manage their own resources.

The timetable has been the subject of ongoing revision and the current version was approved in October 2023 to take account of the draft Plan Strategy submission.

• Read the Belfast Local Development Plan timetable

You can also request a copy of the Belfast Local Development Plan timetable (October 2023) by emailing [email protected].

More information

If you have any queries on accessing the documentation, contact the Planning Office at [email protected]. Our Planning team can also help on 028 9050 0510.