Chief executive of Belfast City Council John Walsh on the decisions ahead for this ‘unique’ place
IS THIS WHAT HAS BECOME OF BELFAST?
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September 26th, 2022.
Safe injecting rooms to tackle Belfast’s drug problem, ‘zero emissions zones’ to cut down on vehicle pollution and old, derelict buildings given a new lease of life — these are some of the ideas for the future of our capital city.
That is according to the chief executive of Belfast City Council, John Walsh, who spoke to this newspaper for the first time since taking office.
In recent months, the state of Belfast city centre has made headlines for all the wrong reasons.
From open drug use and dirty streets to crime, deaths on the streets and shuttered businesses.
Mr Walsh has faced a bulging in-tray since he took the reins at BCC from his predecessor Suzanne Wylie in March.
He previously worked as the City Solicitor and was a frequent fixture in council meetings offering legal advice.
Asked what makes Belfast a good place to live, he said it is down to the people, the built heritage, and says what the city has to offer is “spectacular”.
Masked members of the loyalist East Belfast UVF conducting a show-of- strength in full presence of armed PSNI officers - not one of them was charged with belonging to a proscribed organisation.
“For me, the future of Belfast will rely heavily on our ability to retain talent, and also promote ourselves to new talent. Because of the Troubles, the city received very little investment for years,” he added.
“But what that did give us was more of a blank canvas, one that other European cities don’t have, on which we can build a truly unique city.
The former Bank of Ireland building will be restored as part of the £100 million Belfast Stories visitor attraction
“We have to work on accessibility as well. The Belfast Hills, for instance — we’re currently working on opening up the hills and making them accessible for all.”
Regarding the cleanliness of the city, Mr Walsh pointed to the cleansing taskforce that has been set up, adding that a review of cleansing operations is under way. He said a dedicated in-house street washing team has been created, while specialist cleansing has been taking place in recent weeks.
To give derelict buildings a new lease of life, a two-year pilot programme has opened called ‘Vacant to Vibrant’, which offers grants of between £2,500 and £25,000 to support the occupation of vacant premises.
Mr Walsh said the planning system does not help matters.
“I would much rather not be having to deal with the planning system as it is, I would have to say it is not fit for purpose. The investment community can be quite fickle, and if they have money to spend they will go to places where it is easier to do so,” he said.
“For me, a priority needs to be reviewing the planning system and making it fit for purpose, but we have been quite successful in making sure some of the larger scale applications are progressed quickly.”
Following a spate of deaths among the homeless community, and those with addiction issues, the chief executive said hard decisions will have to be made. “I actually spent a night on the streets and speaking to these people. They all have different stories to tell. Some have addiction issues and some don’t,” he added.
“We would act as a convenor for these city issues and have spoken to all stakeholders and will be rolling out a programme called ‘complex lives’, which was first rolled out in Doncaster.
“That is very much about looking at the individual, assessing their needs and putting together a programme that we can wrap around the individual and get them to a better place.
“For instance, there was one man I spoke to on the streets who had been given the keys to a house, but he couldn’t cope. And we do have to look at the places, the hotspots, where this is going on.
“Dublin is experiencing the same issue, and we’re speaking with our counterparts there on ways to address these problems.
“But we do have hard conversations and I’ve raised this with the Chief Constable and others.
“They’ve had difficulty with this in Dublin, in terms of finding a location, but I do think we have to look at potentially having a safe place for these people, a safe injecting room.”
The council has a climate resilience strategy in place, aimed at making the city greener and more environmentally-friendly.
Mr Walsh pointed to other European cities that have implemented ‘zero emissions zones’, where only fully-electric vehicles are allowed. He said that, while not everyone would be happy with introducing such a scheme in Belfast, it could be an option going forward.
“In terms of connectivity, we try to influence the Department for Infrastructure (DfI) as much as possible to improve that. That’s a big part of Bolder Vision [a blueprint on improving the city], and I think we’re close to signing an MoU [memorandum of understanding] with DfI and DfC [Department for Communities] to bring forward many of these initiatives,” he said.
The BCC boss also stressed the value of the Belfast Stories project, a £100m development where North Street meets Royal Avenue.
It will tell the story of Belfast through a variety of media and immersive experiences. Mr Walsh said it will be “brilliant” for the city and something which he is particularly excited about. It is expected to open in 2028.
Finally, while the chief executive has to remain apolitical, he did admit when asked about the current political crisis: “It’s always a better place to be when we have a functioning Assembly.”
With many thanks to the: Belfast Telegraph and Andrew Madden for the original publication.
Follow these links to find out more on this story: Son of leading UVF Chief has all charges against him dismissed in paramilitary show-of-strength at Pitt Park.
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