Belfast Agenda Update

Suzanne Wylie, Chief Executive, Belfast City Council, Monday 08 August gave a very interesting and very well received update on the Belfast Agenda. She highlighted that Belfast is on the cusp of an exciting new era of growth; there is a positive energy and vibe in Belfast, with many new hotels and an insatiable demand for office space.

Their 15 year strategy is creating a a new vision for the future ensuring the economic, social and environmental wellbeing of the city by providing plans to meet housing need; identifying areas to zone for business and green and open spaces and supporting the development of a transport system to meet the need of a modern, thriving and growing city.

Suzanne highlighted some of the more significant projects notably the:

• Waterfront Hall - the £30m extension creating a state of the art Conference Centre
• Innovation Factory – which will open on Springfield Road in October providing a 30,000sq ft business space for small businesses, specialising in innovation, research and development and other creative solutions, to be nurtured and grown
• Girdwood Community Hub - a state-of-the-art cross community leisure, community and education facility on the Crumlin Road
• North Foreshore - a 60 acres Business Park being developed on the former landfill site
• Belfast Bikes – 330 public bikes now provided at 33 bike docking stations in the city centre
• 6 new leisure Centres - which will provide state-of-the-art leisure facilities and
• Connswater Community Greenway – phase 2 of which will reconnect the existing Connswater, Knock and Loop Rivers to create a 9km linear park, running from Belfast Lough to the Castlereagh Hills.