CALLS have been made to stop Common Market in Belfast’s Cathedral Quarter from being turned into a car park.

The plans from developers Conway Estates Ltd seek to turn the popular eating and drinking spot into a short stay car park – but they've been met with resistance from businesses and political reps.

Lisnasharragh Green Party Councillor Brian Smyth who has raised the concerns said it was depressing the city was considering more parking spaces when the last review undetaken by the council in 2018 showed that only around 65 per cent of car park spaces in Belfast were constantly in use.

The Green Councillor said: “When you look at Belfast City Centre, you have large chunks of this city that are in distress due to poor planning decisions from developers and the Council’s planning committee. The Council planning committee have a lot to answer for and I will highlight Tribeca as a case in point. A sizeable chunk of the city centre has been left in limbo and it makes me think, what is the ambition for Belfast? Is it endless car parks and crumbling buildings?”

Cllr Smyth said that Belfast is one of the most car-centric cities in Britain and Ireland and he claimed this has had a negative economic impact on the amount of time which people spend in the city centre as well as increasing emissions and producing unclean air.

“There have been studies done which have shown that when you make your own way into town, whether by rail, bus, bike or walking you will spend on average of four to five hours in town. When you travel in by car, you have to worry about parking and getting back in time so the average stay is only around two hours.

"When people spend longer in town they tend to spend more money in local businesses, bars and restaurants which is a positive for people in this city. There are already loads of car parks around the area of Common Market, such as by St Anne’s and Tomb Street and there are already car parking spaces in front of Common Market itself. A good chunk of the existing car parking spaces aren’t being utilised so I don’t think we need more.”

Cllr Smyth said Common Market contains a number of small businesses and entrepreneurs who are young people seeking to run their own business. The Lisnasharragh rep said Common Market employs around 60 people and putting a new car park there sends the wrong message.

“We need to review our strategy on how we view the city centre. It should be clean, green and accessible. It should also be supporting small businesses in the middle of an economic downturn. If we give up our city centre for endless car parks and crumbling buildings what sort of long-term strategy is that? The soul of this city is taking a battering. 

“I believe this car park development in Common Market is a smaller part of a larger problem wherein the city centre is becoming a place where people don’t want to spend time because it’s being killed with car parks, old crumbling buildings and toxic air.

“If we lose the city centre, will our neighbourhoods be next? We need a vibrant city centre and connected neighbourhoods and to make our city centre truly somewhere people want to visit and spend time in.

“I will be urging the Council to reject this proposal and I hope the planning committee will take these objections on board.”