[belfastuniguy]

Perhaps I'm being over critical, but in my lifetime I don't think I've ever seen our city centre streets and the general urban fabric in such a terrible state of disrepair.

I think that's valid for some areas but not as a wider point for the city. The areas that have benefited from investment and public realm works are significantly better than what existed prior to such work.

The delay with Streets Ahead Phase 3 is very annoying but can't be helped given a minister wasn't in place to sign off on funds. I do expect that to be back on the agenda over the coming 6 months. Work has been on-going through in the background on renewal projects for the Linen Quarter and Shaftesbury so it's not as if they have been forgotten. The issue is funding and having an Executive in place to make decisions.

Belfast CC, as with all councils, have not had regeneration powers devolved from Dept. Communities as they were meant to as part of the council reforms. DfC Minister refused to let the powers go at the time, hopefully the new Minister will move forward with that.

 

[odlum833]

Seems a shame to lose that nice paving from an area which doesn't exactly have a great deal of traffic.

To be fair cobble stoning can be pretty lethal under icey and even wet conditions.

For the council a trade off between looking nice and injury claims. I'd prefer the stoning was kept but don't think tarmacing will look that bad as the rest looks very nice.

 

[transportfanboy]

I think that's valid for some areas but not as a wider point for the city. The areas that have benefited from investment and public realm works are significantly better than what existed prior to such work.

The delay with Streets Ahead Phase 3 is very annoying but can't be helped given a minister wasn't in place to sign off on funds. I do expect that to be back on the agenda over the coming 6 months. Work has been on-going through in the background on renewal projects for the Linen Quarter and Shaftesbury so it's not as if they have been forgotten. The issue is funding and having an Executive in place to make decisions.

Belfast CC, as with all councils, have not had regeneration powers devolved from Dept. Communities as they were meant to as part of the council reforms. DfC Minister refused to let the powers go at the time, hopefully the new Minister will move forward with that.

On that theme, given that the whole local government reform was before my time, can you or anyone else comment why devolution of local roads wasn't done? It seems ridiculous that the DfI is managing unclassified roads in housing estates, rather than this being something that's done by the local council.

 

[matni]

On that theme, given that the whole local government reform was before my time, can you or anyone else comment why devolution of local roads wasn't done? It seems ridiculous that the DfI is managing unclassified roads in housing estates, rather than this being something that's done by the local council.

Or a local homeowners' association!

I'd also love to know the answer to this.

Do the cretins who run this place even understand concepts like localism, decentralisation, skin in the game?

Maybe Stormont politicians and their departments realise how backward and incompetent they are and think "surely councils must be even more incompetent than we are, so best keep the powers where they are"?

The good news is, it looks like with Boris Johnson / Dominic Cummings we have a government who actually "gets it" and actually understands a lot of these management/organisational/macroeconomic concepts and is willing to shake things up a bit.

Whether any of that will actually make it into NI is highly questionable, sadly.

 

[Not Tall Enough]

It's so they can all blame each other. Look at the state of Dundonald. Castlereagh now LCCC had no issue approving houses when they had no infrastructure to support it. Now residents are going daft at the council for approving the houses with no infrastructure and the council will try to blame dfi. There seems to be a big kick off at the min with the mill mount developers and frasers trying to get out of building a link road between Newtownards and Comber roads that was promised years ago that now they want to put straight through the housing development. The whole place is a shambles now.

 

[plank007]

Rant. It's disgraceful. We want to cut car usage and car dependency, but we continue to approve these nondescript car centric developments like Mill Mount, Coopers Mill and god knows where else.

Now is the time to stop developing greenfield sites on the fringes of the city and start developing brown field sites in the city!!

 

[ulsterjamesie]

Rant. It's disgraceful. We want to cut car usage and car dependency, but we continue to approve these nondescript car centric developments like Mill Mount, Coopers Mill and god knows where else.

Now is the time to stop developing greenfield sites on the fringes of the city and start developing brown field sites in the city!!

Yeah, we've covered the city centre thing ad nauseam but you're quite right.

I'm a dundonalder living smack bang in between Millmount, Greengraves Gate and Coopers Mill... Glider has helped in terms of transport but a victim of its own success. You'd be lucky to get a space in the Park and Glide anytime after 08:30 and no chance after 09:00. Folk are parking sideways on kerbs by that stage or just driving on into town. Shows the demand for a full on electrified tram system. It would make all the difference.

Problem is infrastructure/amenities generally as has been well covered. Minimal shops, two primary schools and one GP surgery in the whole of dundonald for a booming population. Nothing wrong with a populous and growing locale but the infrastructure/amenities need to come with it along the lines of a suburb in any other non-UK European city (and at the same time get the groundwork laid in the city centre). Hopefully Stormo(u)nt will come up with a policy/plan at some point. It has to as it will become unsustainable as we carry on as we are.

 

[thevanishin]

Rant. It's disgraceful. We want to cut car usage and car dependency, but we continue to approve these nondescript car centric developments like Mill Mount, Coopers Mill and god knows where else.

Now is the time to stop developing greenfield sites on the fringes of the city and start developing brown field sites in the city!!

Have a look at the aerial photos of this new development on the fringes of the outskirts of Ballyclare:
https://www.propertypal.com/ollar-valley-newtownabbey/d2281/photo-3

Completely surrounded by farmland (on a floodplain!) with no public transport connections, no connection to the town except via the main road (which passes the sewage treatment works and an industrial estate before reaching the town), thus making every resident dependent on cars in a town already suffering from chronic congestion.

That type of appalling planning can be found all over NI, but that's one of the worst examples I've seen recently. The frustrating thing is that Ballyclare could be a really nice town if it wasn't choked with traffic.

 

[plank007]

...

 

[hypnotoad24]

Linen Quarter BID proposal to install a boardwalk in the area.

Re-Imaging Public Realm - Linen Quarter BID

linenquarter.org

Consultation on it here:

Consultation: Public Realm - Linen Quarter BID

linenquarter.org

 

[damianmcr]

Love it.