Rural Needs
The Rural Needs Act (Northern Ireland) 2016 introduced a duty on Northern Ireland government departments, district councils and other public authorities to have “due regard to rural needs when developing, adopting, implementing or revising policies, strategies and plans, and when designing and delivering public services.”
The Act means that we must carry out rural needs impact assessments on relevant policies, strategies and plans.
We also have to report on how we comply with the rural needs duty in an annual monitoring report to the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA), which oversees the operation of the Act.
Annual monitoring reports from all applicable public authorities are compiled into an overall monitoring report which is published on the DAERA website.
LCCC Annual Monitoring Reports to DAERA
LCCC Rural Needs Annual Monitoring Report 2021-2022 (Word doc)
Please contact us should you wish to view older monitoring reports. You can email our Rural Needs Co-ordinator on equality@lisburncastlereagh.gov.uk
For more information about rural needs legislation, see the DAERA website here