Call for rural housing law change

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Rural planning policy must be radically changed, Assembly environment committee chairman Patsy McGlone has said.

About 500 dwellings have been granted planning permission since March 2006 when restrictions came in.

The figure for the previous year for outline planning permission alone was more than 5,000, according to figures obtained by Mr McGlone of the SDLP.

But the restrictions have been welcomed by environmentalists, who say the law - PPS 14 - prevents a bungalow blitz.

The government announced last year that almost all new plans for single rural dwellings would not be considered.

Among the applications approved in the past 15 months were 400 replacement dwellings and 41 were farm dwellings.

Mr McGlone said the planning restrictions were too severe.