Culture Minister Edwin Poots has announced Barrie Todd MBE as Chair of Architecture and the Built Environment Advisory Group (MAG) for Northern Ireland.

The Group, which includes a further eight appointed members, will champion design quality in all sectors of the built environment in the province and advise the Minister on the implementation of the Architecture and the Built Environment Policy published in June 2006.

The appointments, for a term of three years, will take effect from 1 September.

The Minister congratulated Mr Todd on his appointment and said: "Mr Todd is a well known and respected architect whose appointment will be welcomed by the profession.

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“Both the Architecture and the Built Environment Policy and the Ministerial Advisory Group will aim to raise the standard of the design and performance of publicly funded buildings and leave a legacy which generations to come will treasure."

Mr Poots continued: "Attractive, safe, healthy and well-designed buildings can greatly improve our quality of life and impact upon the social, economic and environmental landscape of Northern Ireland. With Barrie as Chair I am confident that the new Group will quickly win respect as a champion for good design in the built environment.”

Accepting the appointment, Mr Todd said: "I am very pleased to be appointed as Chair of the Ministerial Advisory Group and am looking forward to working closely with the appointed, esteemed members of the Group.

"Northern Ireland is currently seeing its biggest public sector buildings spend for quite some time and the regional capital, Belfast, the biggest regeneration programme since Victorian times."

He concluded: "The formation of the Ministerial Advisory Group is therefore timely and appropriate in that particular context."

(JM/SP)