This is just a ‘hello!’.

That we exist. 

When I say ‘we’ I mean people who are fed up with seeing Belfast being vandalised by developers and losing its architectural heritage.

As you may or may not know there are plans afoot to demolish a fair whack of the area behind the Belfast Telegraph offices a.k.a the Smithfield & Union area.

As run down as the area may be in its present state it nonetheless offers great potential and many people feel that simply demolishing the area and putting up new apartments (yawn!) is a mistake especially when we know what can be done with semi-derelict areas (e.g. the Cathedral Quarter).

What's more, the initial plans (available in the planning office in Linenhall st) seem to indicate the ousting of people and businesses e.g. the Sunflower bar on Kent & Union. Yes, that's right. A plan to improve the area involves knocking down one of the city's favourite haunts.

The Sunflower Bar - Under threat

 

 

People are understandably miffed at such proposals but a lot of this miff is wasted as people don't really know what to do.

Hence this page. And Twitter account (@Belfast_revival )  . And Facebook page ('Save the Orpheus'). And there's a webpage on the way.

In due course we’ll keep you posted on updates, plans, gossip and (hopefully) skulduggery and encourage you to object and send your thoughts to the planning office and others (in due course).

 

 

 

All blogs will have a link to the planning portal for the current plans of destruction just to remind people of how important it is to object. Gigs, petitions and protests mean only so much to bureaucrats but papers lodged in an orderly fashion mean a great deal.

So, without further ado, here are two ways of protesting:

1/ Email the planning department planning@belfastcity.gov.uk quoting the ref. number LA04/2015/0577/O , explain your objections and request a reply.

2/ Sign onto the planning portal, log in and place an objection. It takes a few minutes, but goes straight to the source.

If you follow this link you can go directly to the application: http://epicpublic.planningni.gov.uk/publicaccess/applicationDetails.do?activeTab=summary&keyVal=NR2M3ISV30000

Simply register and then add a comment (tick the ‘object’ button too).

 Watch this space and set your outrage level to 'stun'.