NI Conservatives’ environment spokesman, Brian McBride, has said that a lack of transparency over political donations could pose “major questions” over the impartiality of planning decisions under the new 11 council model.
“Councillors will exercise significant new planning powers in the proposed ‘super councils’”, Brian explained. “That means that party representatives will be able to take decisions, despite the fact that they may have been in receipt of major anonymous donations from developers or other interested parties. Lack of transparency raises a risk that the impartiality of decisions could be affected.”
“Northern Ireland’s planning laws are outdated, slow and have created difficulties for the economy, however we’ve got to ensure that decisions are transparent. That is the case in the rest of the UK, where parties are required to declare major donors. In Northern Ireland, NI Conservatives operate the same standards by publishing all donations which are over that threshold.”
“The Department of the Environment needs to make sure that safeguards are in place to ensure that the system is as transparent as possible. Once again this raises difficulties with Northern Ireland parties being able to accept anonymous donations, which is a position we are opposed to.”