Current Campaigns
MAY STREET PRESBYTERIAN CHURCHPlans are still afoot to build over and encase this B+ listed classical church, demolish the B+ listed church hall beside and remove the historic railings. The amended scheme for the 'Hope and History Centre', which includes office accommodation and 76 apartments, also involves the construction of a 19 storey building alongside looming over Joy Street and other listed buildings. The proposals clearly contravene listed building and conservation area policy and should be swiftly refused.
TAKE ACTION:
Write to Belfast Planning Division, objecting to the scheme. You can use the UAHS letter as a template.
'LET'S GET IT RIGHT', CATHEDRAL QUARTER
We have been working with groups in the Cathedral Conservation Area for a number of years to encourage heritage-led regeneration in the birthplace of the city.
DSD and Ewarts are to finalise a development agreement subject to securing planning permission. Previous schemes involved demolition of late 19th century and interwar fabric and the relocation of the unusual 1930s arcade by Cowser and Smyth following arson attack. The Society will continue to encourage the retention of historic buildings and the restoration of the arcade based on original drawings.
SAVE THE MILLOVERVIEW:
We are supporting the artists' collective, Creative Exchange, in their bid to have Loopbridge mill listed. The top floor of this 4 storey mid 19th century flax spinning mill houses their studios and a series of planning applications for supermarkets would involve its demolition. A number of mill conversions across Belfast and beyond demonstrate how these imposing industrial buildings can accommodate highly successful mixed use development schemes. We hope this potential can be realised at Loopbrige.
UNAUTHORISED DEMOLITION OF BALLYCASTLE TERRACE
OVERVIEW:
On the evening of Friday 14 December 2007 a series of fires took hold across a prominent late Victorian terrace on Quay Road in the lower part of the Ballycastle Conservation Area. The entire group was demolished without consent that weekend. The applicants had lodged an application to demolish and argued that the buildings were structurally unsound but a report commissioned by the Society from a structural engineer with extensive conservation experience found that the buildings were not beyond repair. A positive conservation-led approach is fundamental in conservation areas which are defined by their historic fabric and a swift refusal should have been issued.
TAKE ACTION:
Support our request to the Minister that enforcement action is taken and that replication of the buildings is sought.
PPS14OVERVIEW:
We are keen to promote more sustainable forms of development in the countryside, such as the re-use of our vastly diminished heritage of traditional buildings. Draft Planning Policy Statement 14 offers a lifeline to this increasingly vulnerable resource but is currently under review following publication of the Emerging Findings of a Stormont Executive Sub-Committee charged with deciding its future. Read the UAHS reaction to the findings.
Following a series of stakeholder meetings planned for February, at which the UAHS will be represented, it is expected that a new draft policy will be published for public consultation in April 2008.
TAKE ACTION:
LISTED 'PINEY RIDGE' DEMOLISHED WITHOUT CONSENT
B1 listed 'Piney Ridge' was demolished without consent during the Easter holidays. The Society has called upon the DoE to act swiftly to punish this offence using the full force of its enforcement powers to help ensure that others are deterred from pursuing the same course of action.
The house is described in the UAHS publication on The Architectural Heritage of Malone and Stranmillis as:
“A very crisp late Arts and Crafts design on an angled plan. Rather chunky roughcast walls with small leaded panes in dark stained casement windows, and with Lutyenesque tile-hung double height bays under big overhanging Westmoreland slate roofs. Very stylish.
TAKE ACTION:
Join us in writing a letter to the Minister asking that enforcement action is taken without delay.