A HUMAN rights organisation has sought legal advice over Council plans to build a greenway on the former Mackie's site, where campaigners have long called for social housing.
The 25-acre site is owned by the Department for Communities (DfC) and is located in West Belfast, the area of highest social housing demand in the North of Ireland.
Participation and the Practice of Rights (PPR) has criticised a Draft Master Plan, which involves a land transfer from DfC to Belfast City Council, to develop a greenway as a 'shared space' with no plans for social housing.
City Hall planners are to consider allowing the Mackie's site to form part of the £5.1million Forth Meadow Greenway, a 12 kilometre route connecting parks and open spaces from North and West Belfast.
PPR has instructed Nicholas Quinn Solicitors and Pragma Planning to make representations on behalf of PPR and the families they support to the Council.
In a formal objection, PPR said the greenway plans breach the council's own planning policy set out in its Belfast Urban Area Plan (BUAP) and in its draft Belfast Metropolitan Plan (BMAP), which both zone the Mackie's site for economic development purposes.
The objection further notes the current plan's divergence from the original greenway route set out in BMAP, which campaigners believe would still allow for social homes at Mackie's.
Notification of the objection has also been sent to the Minister for Communities, Deirdre Hargey MLA.
There are over 3,000 children in housing need in North and West Belfast and campaigners say homeless children in the areas worst impacted by the housing crisis have been ignored by statutory plans for Mackie's.
PPR Housing Campaigns organiser Marissa McMahon said the organisation had taken the step after years of failure by public authorities to tackle housing inequality in North and West Belfast.
“The Mackie’s site is massive, publicly owned and right in the middle of the areas of greatest housing need," she said.
“Council’s plans are wrong on many levels and we are confident that the intervention of legal and planning experts at this stage will send these plans back to drawing board.
“Any plans for public land in North and West Belfast that do not include families in housing need aren’t fit for purpose.”
PPR's legal representative, Nicholas Quinn, said: "We have been instructed to provide legal advice to PPR to examine the lawfulness of the actions and proposed actions by the Belfast City Council and the Department for Communities in relation to proposals at that site to include green space.
"As part of that legal advice we have engaged an expert planning consultant to assist with formal representations to the planners in Belfast City Council."
He added: "At this stage we are simply inviting the planners to refuse the application as part of the planning process. Litigation isn't contemplated at this stage unless it becomes necessary".
A Belfast City City Council spokesperson said: "This objection has been lodged and it will be a matter of it following due process via the Planning Committee."
