Belfast social housing estate approved despite poor placement warnings

Plans to construct a new social housing estate in West Belfast have been given the greenlight despite warnings from City Hall that it will be placed ‘in the middle of an industrial site’.

Belfast City Council’s planning officers advised this week that elected representatives reject a plan for a social housing led, mixed tenure residential development of 139 units, north of Westwood Shopping Centre.

The plan, which was proposed by the developer company Johncorp (No.2) Ltd, is comprised of 52 dwelling houses and 87 apartments, public open space, a children’s play park, landscaping and car parks. Of the new properties – the developer has promised 80% of them will be social homes.

However, the proposed site is surrounded by two supermarkets, both with service delivery yards, a refrigerator trailer park, a council waste recycling site, a 24 hour printing/packaging businesses, a wholesale distributor of fresh food produce and a fish products premises.

The neighbouring businesses have unrestricted operational times and at least four currently operate at night as well as during the day, suggesting that people who decide to live here will be constantly hit with bad smells, loud noise, air quality and pest complaints.

Despite these factors and the councils recommendation for rejection, the plan was carried through at the local authorities Planning Committee with nine votes in favour of the development.

Although, the council’s planning report on the application states: ‘Surrounding lands in the immediate context are all in non-residential uses. Officers consider that the introduction of a residential development in this area would not be compatible with the surrounding existing land uses, some of which operate 24/7.

‘Furthermore, many of the existing businesses in the area operate unrestricted hours/noise levels and in addition would benefit from permitted development rights to expand or change within their current ‘use class’. The development has the potential to adversely impact upon existing businesses should it be approved.’

Against this backdrop, external factors seem to be outweighed by the increasing demand for more social homes. The Northern Ireland Housing Executive has projected a housing need of 1,107 homes for Middle West Belfast for 2022-27. The waiting list in that part of the city has also increased by 48% since 2017.

A council officer said: ‘Allocations have fluctuated but there remains a considerable gap between demand and supply. Singles, small families and large families exhibit the highest level of demand.

‘Housing need is a planning consideration, which supports the case for the granting of planning permission. However, it is considered that the site is an unsuitable environment for housing because of noise conflicts and other reasons explained.” The officer added the application represented ‘poor place making.’

Image: K. Mitch Hodge