A High Court judge has ruled that Northern Ireland’s environment minister Mark H Durkan acted “unlawfully” when he approved plans for a new 38,000-seat GAA stadium in the heart of Belfast.

Mr Justice Horner said there had been failures in the environmental impact assessment of the £77m stadium and that the decision to grant planning permission was “irretrievably flawed”.

The High Court ruling comes after a Belfast residents' group issued a formal objection to the stadium plans in September 2013.

The judge didn’t, however, reverse the decision to give the plans the green light.

Instead, he ordered the Northern Ireland Executive, the GAA and the residents group to make further submissions and to suggest remedies to concerns over match day traffic and other issues mentioned in the residents’ complaint.

Work on the 38,000 all-seater stadium were initially due to start in early 2014 with a view to hosting GAA Games (Gaelic Athletic Association) in 2016.

That opening date is now unlikely due to the construction delays resulting from the legal challenge. According to the GAA, the delays are costing around £60,000 a week and have already added another £2.7m to the overall cost of the stadium.

The project is being funded by the Northern Ireland Executive through Department of Culture, Arts and Leisure (£61.4m) and GAA (£15m).

Plans for the Casement Park Stadium include the building of a new 38,000-seated stadium on the site of the ageing Casement GAA stadium.

Design features include a new playing surface to established GAA standards, development of corporate and community facilities, ancillary facilities including player facilities, warm up area, medical and safety facilities, crowd control centre, event management suite and press centre.