DUP: Housing plans in Luke Poots probe reversed

Luke Poots with his father Edwin Poots

A council has reversed a housing decision at the centre of a conflict-of-interest investigation involving a Stormont assembly member and his son.

Ex-councillor Luke Poots chaired a committee when it approved a planning application lobbied for by his father, former DUP leader Edwin Poots.

But after a legal challenge, Lisburn and Castlereagh City Council has now refused planning permission.

The case has cost the council more than £76,000.

The planning approval forms part of an investigation by the Northern Ireland Local Government Commissioner for Standards into complaints against Luke Poots.

About 35 planning decisions over a two-year period where the former DUP councillor sat on the committee and his father made representations have been examined by the watchdog, BBC News NI understands.

Luke Poots has previously insisted he had "done everything by the book", while Edwin Poots said previously that there was no conflict of interest "in any way, shape or form".

'A lesson to other communities'

Local resident Nigel Kinnaird, who was involved in the legal challenge, said the council should apologise.

"We should never have had to be put through that - it's ridiculous," he said.

"It was nice that we were able to take it on ourselves and win it. It's a lesson to other communities that you can do this."

Local resident Nigel Kinnaird said the council should apologise

A former Stormont planning official said the handling of the application raised "fundamental and serious concerns".

Dean Blackwood, a Green Party member who worked in the Department of the Environment's planning department, said: "The issue of overturned recommendations highlights a lack of proper oversight of planning."

He said given the cost to the public, the case "warrants further scrutiny, perhaps from the local government auditor".

Majority vote

Permission was granted in December 2017 for two houses at Magheraconluce Lane, outside Hillsborough, County Down.

The application was due to be determined by council officials under delegated authority, but it was instead referred to the planning committee at the request of the DUP.

Edwin Poots attended the meeting and spoke in favour of the application.

Officials recommended refusal but a majority on the committee voted to approve the application, according to the minutes.

Luke Poots with his father Edwin at an election count

Planning approval was quashed by the High Court in 2021 after Gordon Duff, an environmental campaigner, sought a judicial review with the backing of residents.

In August, the planning committee reconsidered the application and this time unanimously backed officials' recommendation to refuse permission.

Breach of planning policy?

Mr Duff said he pursued the case after becoming concerned about the number of planning decisions being made against the advice of council officials.

"I then noticed this planning case in Magheraconluce Lane on the planning portal and it was immediately obvious there was no possible justification for this planning decision and that led me to talk to a number of neighbours," he said.

At a court hearing, it was argued approval had breached planning policy on infill dwellings in the countryside.

The High Court heard allegations of conflicts of interest, including that Luke Poots "may have a friendship with the son of the planning applicant".

It was also alleged the plans may have been passed by DUP councillors voting in a block to carry the proposal.

A judge said the claims "if sufficiently evidentially grounded, give rise to arguable grounds of procedural unfairness".

Edwin Poots previously said that there was no conflict of interest 'in any way, shape or form'

The council said a fresh decision notice has been issued on the planning application and the applicant will have four months to consider lodging an appeal.

It added: "To date £76,315.83 has been spent in legal costs."

The DUP have been approached for comment.

Luke Poots served as a councillor from 2013 until 2019 and had been employed as a case worker in his father's constituency office.

He has previously said that on being appointed to the planning committee, the council received legal advice "which I have always followed".

"I have done everything by the book. I am 100% in the clear," he said previously.

"Every time I have been in the chair when my dad speaks, I have declared an interest."

Edwin Poots had said: "There is no conflict of interest that has been exercised in any way, shape or form by either myself, my son, other DUP members or anybody else on the council."