All the non-unionist parties pushed a decision through based on official’s advice at City Hall
The DUP has failed to stop a new short-term let apartment block in East Belfast getting approval, despite locals stating the development is “not wanted by the community.”
Elected representatives at the February meeting of the Belfast City Council Planning Committee on a majority vote approved an application for the erection of a four-storey building to create 29 short-term let accommodation units at 341-345 Albertbridge Road, Belfast, BT5. The developer is ALMCC (NI) Limited, Shore Road, Holywood.
A vote on a DUP proposal to refuse the application saw seven votes in favour from the DUP and the UUP and 12 against from the other parties, and so it was approved.
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The application received 37 objections since it first went to the council last December. Despite this none of the relevant statutory bodies objected and the council’s Planning team recommended the application for approval.
In a council report, officers said the most recent objections state “the proposal is not wanted by the community” and it “would be better used for family housing to meet local needs, or for business premises benefiting local people.” The report states objectors raised “concerns about people coming and going, and not knowing who they are,” as well as concerns about community safety, overshadowing and loss of privacy.
The site at 341-345 Albertbridge Road was formerly the Beijing Restaurant, which has since been demolished, leaving the site vacant. The surrounding area is predominately a mix of commercial and residential uses, with homes immediately opposite. Connswater Retail Park is located to the rear of the site.
Short-term let accommodation refers to renting out a property or room for a short period, from one night to a few weeks or months, rather than for a permanent residence. Platforms like Airbnb and Vrbo list these types of rentals, which offer visitors more choice and a different experience from traditional hotels.
Despite the growing public mood against the proliferation of short-term let accommodation, developers who have had their applications refused at the council’s Planning Committee are increasingly appealing the decisions, with significant levels of success. As a result council officers are advising councillors to show rigorous policy-related and legal reasoning when objecting to applications they have recommended for approval.
Regarding the Albertbridge Road application, Planning officers said in a report: “Whilst community safety can be a material planning consideration, there is no evidence to suggest that the proposal would result in significant harm to the public interest in this respect that would override normal planning policy considerations.”
In another report the Planning officer states: “(The application) is not considered to impact negatively on existing residential amenity. It will strengthen and diversify short term let accommodation, is located close to public transport and within walking distance of a tourist attraction. Appropriate management arrangements will be secured via a planning condition.”
At the February meeting of the council’s Planning Committee, DUP Councillor Ruth Brooks said: “I don’t think this proposal aligns with the intent of the Belfast Local Development Plan, and in particular its housing policies. I have read through this report, and some of the conclusions reached under Policy HOU13, specifically the assertion that this site sits within an existing tourism cluster, is a considerable stretch of the imagination.
“The Oval, home to Glentoran Football Club is a periodic match-day venue. Organised tours operate on an enquiry-led basis and are very infrequent. There are no fixed tour dates, no structured daily programme, and no sustained tourism schedule.”
She added: “Mentioned within this report are EastSide Visitor Centre, CS Lewis Square and Templemore Baths Heritage Experience. These are important civic and heritage assets, but they primarily function as a daytime attraction within a wider city tourism offer. Visitors may spend part of the day in East Belfast as part of a broader itinerary, but overnight accommodation demand remains concentrated within the city centre.”
She said: “The history of this site is highly relevant. The Housing Executive had previously indicated there would be a residential development. That proposal failed not because the site was unsuitable for housing, but because the design did not meet the standards.
“East Belfast is not flush with land. We have to look at the land that we have and use it for housing.”
DUP Alderman Dean McCullough said: “If you drive up the Newtownards Road, you will see the limitations on land, when you compare that with the waiting lists for families who are languishing on them. It is critical that social housing is maximised in established working class communities, where people are in clear housing stress.”
He added: “I would be confident, and I don’t think anyone around this table would disagree with me, that if you knocked on doors in the surrounding area and asked people, their views would be pretty clear.” He said it was “clear there was a cohesion issue” and that “the community had made that clear through all the available avenues they have.”
A council officer replied: “Within our current development plan, that land isn’t zoned for housing. We have the incoming Local Policies Plan which will be zoning housing land to ensure we meet the aspirations of the Belfast Agenda.
“There will be a clear vehicle for people to make representations on land that they think will be appropriate. But at the moment this land is not zoned, and it would be premature for us to retain the land, or refuse planning permission on the basis that it could potentially come forward as housing land.”
She added: “In terms of community cohesion, and what are material considerations, we often have things that are absolute priorities for communities, but they don’t necessarily fall into material considerations for Planning. It hasn’t been demonstrated through any of the representations or any other evidence we have that bringing forward this proposal would impact the community in a negative way.
“I understand that community planning and engagement is really important. This was not a major application that would involve pre-community consultation. It is a local application that has been brought to the committee, and called in due to the objections and concerns. It is not our view that it would have the potential to have any significant impact on cohesion.”
Sinn Féin Councillor Ryan Murphy, and committee Chair, said at the meeting: “We need to be careful, in relation to planning appeals that have been made on the determination lists, that we are not willingly refusing something on the same grounds, for it to go to appeal and then be overturned for the same reasons.
“We are finding ourselves in a position where we have a disagreement between what our view is of a tourist cluster in comparison to what the Planning Appeals Commission say.”
An array of Belfast councillors from a variety of political parties have warned that communities all over the city could soon face a housing crisis caused by short-term lets, similar to the crisis caused by HMOs in areas such as the Holylands.
Last September, at a meeting of the council’s Licensing Committee, councillors and a council officer made reference to allegations that Tourism NI were certifying properties as short-term lets before they had planning permission, with one councillor stating short term lets were the “wild west” of the housing sector.
At the City Hall Planning Committee meeting last month, another controversial application, for a short term let accommodation in a 200 year old listed building close to the city centre, was withdrawn from the agenda without explanation.
The month before the application for the “retrospective change of use” from residential to short-term let accommodation at 39 Hamilton Street, in the Market area off Cromac Street, was deferred for a site visit. The building at the site has been operating as an AirBnB style short term accommodation without permission for almost two years, to the consternation of local residents and even local elected representatives. The Hamilton Street property consists of a three-bedroom, three-storey brick-built property, and is a Grade B2 listed building located within the Linen Conservation Area.
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