A controversial loyalist bonfire site at an entrance to Belfast City Hospital is set to be replaced with a “reflective garden space”.
The site at the junction of Donegall Road and Coolfin Street is located at a side entrance to the hospital on land owned by the Belfast Health and Social Care Trust.
The annual July 11 bonfire at the location has faced criticism for its impact on the environment, patient health, and the issue of revellers blocking the Donegall Road – one of the main arterial routes into Belfast City Centre.
Now the Greater Village Regeneration Trust (GVRT) has said talks with the Belfast Health Trust and local bonfire builders has led to a commitment to transform the site into a garden area with a World War One theme including “ceramic poppies”.
“There are plans to remove the fencing around the bonfire site and create a reflective garden space,” a GVRT spokesperson said.
“This is a very positive piece of work which is very much welcomed by the residents of the mid-Donegall Road and the Belfast Trust."
The Irish News revealed last year how the site – which in 2009 saw the 40 foot high blazing pyre topple onto the road – is the North’s most problematic for the NI Fire Service.
A Freedom of Information request showed firefighters attended the site seven times between 2010 and 2015, out of a total of 250 bonfire related incidents across NI which cost the service almost £670,000.
Welcoming the redevelopment plans, south Belfast Alliance MLA Paula Bradshaw said: “There will be a complete community buy-in for this. It’s very much to be supported, particularly as the Donegall Road is the gateway for the city from the M1, and the more we can brighten the road, the better.”
The GVRT predicted work on the project will begin next month and be completed by April, but plans to stop bonfires at the location led to criticism from some on social media.
One Facebook user wrote on a GVRT post that “bitter Catholics from the hospital” had objected to the annual blaze, while other called for the bonfire to be built on the main Donegall Road itself.
A spokeswoman for the Belfast Trust said “no formal decision” has yet been made over the land, but added: “Any proposed work will be done in full discussion with the local community.”
