Royal Town Planning Institute members joined Northern Ireland Planning Service staff in a protest outside divisional offices and the Service HQ after news that 269 staff - one-third of its complement - are to be redeployed.
The news that the service could lose a third of its staff in response to declining income from planning applications and that no distinction is being made between professionals and other staff has prompted the Institute to warn of very significant consequences for economic recovery.
It says a recent Northern Ireland Audit Office report showed that planning officers in the Service already face higher workloads than the rest of the UK.
Institute president Ann Skippers is seeking a meeting with the environment minister Edwin Poots.
"Cuts to the service will further impact the capacity of the service to process planning applications submitted by businesses and developers across Northern Ireland," she said.
"At a time of economic and political uncertainty, the advisability of proceeding with this scale of redeployment is highly questionable as it appears a knee-jerk response that fails to take account of the inevitable rise in numbers of applications as the economy begins to grow. Indeed it may well put at risk the implementation of the very programme of reform that the minister has been so vocal about."
Northern Ireland Assembly Environment Committee chairperson Cathal Boylan has expressed grave concern at the move which came out of the blue.
He met Mr Poots and asked him to retain jobs wherever possible, with redundancy as a last resort.
"The Committee recognises the need for efficiencies but this should not just be translated as cuts," said Mr Boylan.
"We need a Planning Service that is fit for purpose and delivers on the ground in a way that serves people and contributes to economic recovery."
