General Meeting & Visiting RSUA House of the Year 2022

On Friday 2 December, RSUA Members gathered for the quarterly General Meeting. This time taking place at the Seamus Heaney Homeplace in Bellaghy.

General Meetings are an opportunity for members to find out more about the organisation’s activities, to ask questions, raise issues, propose initiatives and to meet other RSUA members. At the meeting the key areas raised by members were in reference to NI Water, the problems of planning, the recent Judicial Review with Gordan Duff, as well as the regulation of heat pumps.

Actions arising from the General Meeting are listed below:

• Meeting to be arranged with NI Water to get an update on progress they have made since the last meeting in July 2022
• Meeting to be arranged in 2023 with Northern Ireland Environmental Agency to aid communication relating to bat surveys
• Chief Executive of Lisburn and Castlereagh Council to be contacted to seek an update on planning applications that have been held up due to the Judicial Review with Gordon Duff
• Members experiencing difficulties contacting key government officials to let RSUA know so they can address the problem with the correct organisations 
• Meeting to be arranged with Angus Kerr, Chief Planner & Director of Regional Planning at the Department of Infrastructure, to discuss if planning applications could be initially reviewed by a planner and feedback provided before it is sent to consultees.

After the General Meeting attendees had the opportunity to undertake a tour of House Lough Beg. This beautiful home on the shores of Lough Beg, won the RSUA’s House of the Year and Client of the Year awards in June 2022 and is now in the running for Grand Designs House of the Year on Channel 4. Members were taken on a tour of the home by architect Kieran McGonigle and homeowners Hugh and Gillian Graham.

More information on the House Lough Beg can be found here