Chapter 5 - The Spatial Development Strategy for Northern
Ireland
Maximising potential
The SDS is designed to maximise the potential of the whole
Region by seeking to integrate development in order to optimise
the distinctive contributions of the principal component areas:
- the Belfast Metropolitan Area and
hinterland in the East (C6);
- the major regional City of Londonderry
and its associated sub-region in the North West (C7);
and
- Rural Northern Ireland comprising
the main and small towns, and their rural catchment areas
characterised by a dispersed settlement pattern (C8).
A balanced and integrated approach, which harnesses the
potential and energies of all areas and communities, will
help to achieve regional cohesion and social inclusion, and
to build a strong regional economy.
 The
Spatial Development Strategy 2025
The SDS is a hub, corridor and gateway framework designed
to:
- guide physical development throughout Northern Ireland over
the next 25 years, subject to adjustment on review;
- facilitate economic growth by identifying a network of
locational opportunities for investment and development;
- accommodate the necessary housing growth;
- promote balanced community development;
- create the conditions for improved and equitable access
to a range of employment, commercial, health, education
and community services across urban and rural areas; and
- protect and enhance the natural and built environments.
The SDS, set out in summary on the following page, is
to guide and manage future development at the strategic level.
It aims to achieve a balance of growth which will maintain
a strong economic heart in the wider Belfast 'travel to work'
hinterland while encouraging decentralised development at
identified growth poles across the Region. This will be focused
on the North-West and the main towns throughout Rural Northern
Ireland, located on the key and link transport corridors.
The key will be to exploit local potential for the benefit
of all.
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The SDS for Northern Ireland (Key
Diagram 4) is a framework for the future physical
development of the Region based on urban HUBS and CLUSTERS,
key and link transport CORRIDORS and the main regional
GATEWAYS of ports and airports.
The aim of the hub, corridor and gateway approach
is to give a strategic focus to future development
and achieve balanced growth within the Region by
developing:
- The key and link transport
corridors and associated trunk road links, as
the skeletal framework for future physical development
and the primary links to the regional gateways
of ports and airports, connecting with the European
and global communications network (C4
and C11);
- A compact and dynamic metropolitan
core centred on Belfast, the major regional gateway
and focal point of the Regional Strategic Transport
Network, balanced by the development of main towns
in the 'travel to work' hinterland as counter-magnets
with significant planned expansion of seven small
towns close to the BMA (C6
and Diagram 5);
- A strong North-West regional
centre based on Londonderry, the transport pivot
and regional gateway for the North-Western
corner of the island (C7);
and
- A vibrant Rural Northern
Ireland with balanced development spread across
a polycentric network of hubs/clusters based
on the main towns which will have a strategic
role as centres of employment and services for urban
and rural communities (C8):
- building-up and reinforcing
a network of main and local hubs1
strategically located on the Regional Strategic
Transport Network which have the capacity to accommodate
and provide a wide range of complementary services;
- recognising the high growth
potential of Craigavon,reflecting its role
as the major industrial and service centre in
mid-Ulster, and its strategic location on the
key transport corridors; and the significant
potential of those main hubs with an extensive
and diverse range of services and a larger population,
generally over 20,000, to generate higher levels
of future growth;
- adopting a sub-regional
approach to clustering of urban centres, in
some parts of Northern Ireland, to enable the
necessary concentration of employment locations
and complementary facilities to create a strong
magnet for investment and development; and
- sustaining a vibrant rural
community living in revitalised small towns,
villages and small rural settlements with an appropriate
scale of rural development in the open countryside,
and with enhanced accessibility to regional facilities
via the key and link transport corridors (C8).
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In the succeeding sections of this chapter, the rationale
underlying the SDS is set out, with further guidance under
six core themes for the future spatial development of the
Region.
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