New panel to be created to advise council on 'design quality' of plans for 'gateway' sites in Derry
Local authority say they need to be in a 'state of readiness' for post-Covid period
A new independent panel is to be created to advise the local council on the design quality of any planning applications for 'gateway' sites in Derry.
Several important areas of land on key entrances to the city are currently vacant.
Derry City and Strabane District Council is now looking to set up the new panel to ask their opinion on the 'design quality' of any planning applications which are made for these sites.
One of the sites expected to be discussed is the derelict site of the former Tillie and Henderson shirt factory at the cityside end of the Craigavon Bridge.
It emerged recently that the current owner of the site is to apply for planning permission to build an apartment complex on the land.
Speaking at a meeting yesterday of the local council's Planning Committee, Eamon Molloy, the council's Head of Planning Performance and Improvement, outlined the proposal for the new advisory panel.
He said the creation of such panels had been put forward as part of a review of the Planning Service.
Mr Molloy said the panel would offer advice to councillors on 'important gateway sites' in the council area.
He said the setting up of such a panel would also allow the council to be in a 'state of readiness' for the 'post-Covid recovery period' when, he said, there hopefully would be 'many opportunities' in terms of development in the council area.
Mr Molloy told the meeting that he would be in contact with the Ministerial Advisory Group on Architecture and Built Environment to agree terms on how the proposed panel would operate.
He said he would bring a report on the matter to next month's meeting of the Planning Committee.
There has been much debate in recent years about the development of 'gateway' sites in Derry.
The Tillie and Henderson site, in particular, has been at the forefront of the discussions.
The site has been unused since the derelict factory building was destroyed in a fire in 2003.
The owners of the site, Belfast-based Andras House, had originally planned to build a hotel on the site.
However, those plans never came to fruition and it emerged last month that Andras House has now teamed up with local developers, the Martin Property Group, to build an apartment complex on the site.
Director of Andras House, Rajesh Rana, said a residential development is 'the most appropriate use that can be delivered at this time'.
Just across the road from the Tillie and Henderson site is another derelict piece of land which was also previously home to a shirt factory.
This would also be regarded as a 'gateway' site in Derry.