A PROPOSAL to extend the opening of Falls Park to 24 hours has been met with mixed reaction following a consultation by Belfast City Council.
Council officers ran an open survey on the council’s Your Say platform from February to April this year and held five drop-in engagement sessions throughout March and April.
The aim of the consultation was to capture residents’ views on extending opening hours of the Botanic, Ormeau, Belmont, Falls and Woodvale Park.
The Falls Park consultation was run alongside a suggestion for the 24-hour opening of the Forth Meadow Greenway gate.
Although there was support for Falls Parks’ opening hours being extended, this was not in line with the views of the majority of overall respondents for both consultation exercises, including the more detailed Forthmeadow Greenway consultation.
Overall, 58 per cent of the 203 respondents for both consultation exercises were against changes to opening hours of specific gates and the park in general.
As for the other parks, there was clear support for 24-hour opening hours in Botanic, Ormeau and Belmont Park.
There was no clear support for extending the opening hours of Woodvale Park, 65 percent against, with the main reason given by respondents being antisocial behaviour concerns.
At the recent August meeting of the council’s People and Communities Committee, Sinn Féin proposed 24-hour opening trials for all five parks and received support from the Green Party.
DUP councillor Nicola Verner said decisions on each should be made individually.
Alliance proposed receiving more information about costs for new lighting and animation before making any decisions on the five parks.
Councillors agreed to defer decisions for an updated report with costs in September.
