{"id":402356,"date":"2025-09-06T10:02:11","date_gmt":"2025-09-06T10:02:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/402356\/"},"modified":"2025-09-06T10:02:11","modified_gmt":"2025-09-06T10:02:11","slug":"residents-of-loyalist-area-against-development-plans-for-bonfire-site-the-irish-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/402356\/","title":{"rendered":"Residents of loyalist area against development plans for bonfire site \u2013 The Irish News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Development plans for a contentious bonfire site close to Belfast<\/a> city centre have led to locals saying that part of a neighbouring loyalist area will be \u201clost forever\u201d.<\/p>\n

The site at Hope Street is owned by the NI Housing Executive<\/a>, which is planning to transform the currently disused space to build \u201cmuch needed new homes, creative open space and provide new employment opportunities\u201c.<\/p>\n

The site has been used by locals from Sandy Row to build annual Eleventh Night bonfires.<\/p>\n

These include a pyre in 2017 that forced the evacuation of a nearby apartment block<\/a> when it was lit.<\/p>\n

\"‘It<\/a>\"Man<\/a><\/p>\n

In the months leading up to the Eleventh Night each year, the site becomes a dumping ground for material including pallets<\/a> to be torched.<\/p>\n

\"LargeBonfire material including pallets and cable reels at the Hope Street site in May of this year. <\/p>\n

Locals are now questioning the details of the proposed social housing development.<\/p>\n

They have also hit out at a proposal to official designate the site as \u2018city centre\u2019 in terms of the Housing Executive\u2019s waiting list, and not Sandy Row.<\/p>\n

A public meeting was scheduled for Thursday night, with local residents due to discuss concerns over the type of housing planned for Hope Street, and also the loss of the area\u2019s \u201ccharacter\u201d.<\/p>\n

Billy Dickson, of the Blackstaff Residents Association, has previously campaigned against the demolition of the Boyne Bridge just yards from the Hope Street site, and also against dual language signage featuring Irish at the nearby Grand Central Station<\/a>.<\/p>\n

He says residents seek new housing in the style of now-demolished terraced streets that once threaded the staunchly loyalist area.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe made these proposals quite some time ago in relation to Hope Street, which is one of the oldest areas in Belfast, and one of the few to retain some of its character,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s Sandy Row, but under the current plans for the site, it will no longer be considered so. We are in danger of losing that entire end of Sandy Row forever, given we\u2019ve already lost the Boyne Bridge.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe character of the area is at risk – it could be the end of Sandy Row as we know it.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, the Housing Executive has said locals have been kept up to speed with the plans, and encouraged to have their say from when a public consultation was launched back in 2023.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Hope Street site offers huge potential to build much needed new homes, creative open space and provide new employment opportunities,\u201d a spokesperson told the Irish News.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe development of new homes will be based on identified housing requirements, taking account of housing market demand and waiting list information. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhile the Hope Street site is located within the Belfast City Centre Waiting List boundary, this does not preclude anyone adding this area of choice to their housing application.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Housing Executive held a community \u2018drop-in\u2019 session in the area last week, with the Hope Street development team in attendance to answer questions. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe have agreed to hold these sessions on quarterly basis, which will give the community ample opportunity to have their voices heard,\u201d the spokesperson added. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe are aware of a meeting in the Sandy Row area regarding the Hope Street development. In the time ahead, we will continue to engage with local representatives to provide updates and we\u2019ve also distributed community newsletters, which we will circulate on a regular basis, providing information on future plans and contact details for liaison with our staff.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Development plans for a contentious bonfire site close to Belfast city centre have led to locals saying that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":402357,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5011],"tags":[43957,130773,1144,138770,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-402356","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-northern-ireland","8":"tag-bonfire","9":"tag-housing-executive","10":"tag-northern-ireland","11":"tag-sandy-row","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115156782323718157","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/402356","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=402356"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/402356\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/402357"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=402356"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=402356"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=402356"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}