A controversial ban on building single homes in the Northern Ireland countryside was quashed today.
Mr Justice Gillen declared at the High Court in Belfast that former Direct Rule Minister Lord Rooker's decision to restrict development in rural areas was illegal.
The legislation should have been brought in by the Department of the Environment rather than the Department for Regional Development, the judicial review found.
The judgment, following a legal challenge taken by Omagh District Council, will now put pressure on the new devolved government at Stormont to bring in fresh laws acceptable to all sides.
The planning policy was introduced in March 2006. It provoked an uproar in some parts, with claims that rural and seaside communities in Northern Ireland were being devastated by a lack of land to which to build new homes.