A MOTION recommending that Belfast City Council endorses a report which calls for greater access to the Belfast Hills has been referred to the People and Communities committee at Council for further consideration.
The motion which was brought to the Council by People Before Profit’s Councillor Matt Collins comes after the Belfast Hills Access Campaign published a document charting the various initiatives that have attempted to improve access to the hills from as far back as 1945 and suggests four routes which would improve access for those living in the city.
Cllr Collins said: “The denial of access to the Belfast Hills is an issue that needs addressed immediately and the Covid crisis as well as the growing climate emergency have brought a whole new verve to this campaign.
“Now more than ever people are out walking in their small bubbles, as a way of nurturing physical and mental health and enjoying our environment. Yet for decade’s local government and various agencies have neglected our hills and refused to develop clear access routes for walkers and citizens wishing to explore these unique and beautiful surroundings.”
“This proposal presents four key access routes where Belfast City Council have the power to act, by opening up access in a way that preserves our hills and complements environmental conservation and bio diversity. We hope all parties will support this motion, but more importantly we wish to see action on this issue,” he continued.
Adding to this, the report’s author John Gray said: “The denial of access to the Belfast Hills is an issue that needs addressed immediately and the Covid crisis as well as the growing climate emergency have brought a whole new verve to this campaign.
“The denial of reasonable public access to the Belfast Hills is a long running scandal and represents a chronic failure of public policy.
“The report provides the genuinely shocking history of past promises and then betrayals on the access issue. This can only inspire a reaction that enough is enough!”
Continuing he said: “It should be noted that the Hills Access Campaign is not demanding a generalised right to roam, rather limited and delineated routes.”
Mr Gray argues that as in the era of the pandemic more and more people seek access to the hills the time is right to make a determined push to achieve a comprehensive resolution of the issues involved.
“The campaign has already won the support of community and environmental groups right across the fringes of the hills and our objectives have been endorsed by the National Trust and the Woodland Trust which are major public landowners in the area. In addition a wide range of civic organisations have supported the initiative” he continued.
“This report should fully inform Belfast councillors of what is at stake, and it is the City Council that has the powers to create these routes in the interests of a greener and healthier city and of their constituents.”
