Housing campaigners in north Belfast have highlighted their continued opposition to a student accommodation block ahead of a planning appeal hearing scheduled for Monday.
Frank Dempsey, of Carrick Hill Residents’ Association, spoke out as the Planning Appeals Commission (PAC) is set to consider an application by Mandeville Developments Ltd to build a student accommodation block on the site of a carpark between Library Street and Little Donegall Street.
The sprawling complex would provide around 800 units and is close to residential homes in the nearby Carrick Hill area, which is a residential district.
Earlier this year a majority of representatives on Belfast City Council’s planning committee voted to reject the plans.
Several student accommodation blocks, linked to the new multi-million-pound Ulster University campus, have been built in the area over recent years on sites previously earmarked for social housing.
Local campaigners have raised concerns over social housing shortages in the area in the past.
The PAC has the power to overturn the original decision.
Mr Dempsey, who will attend this week’s hearing, said thousands of people are currently sitting on housing waiting lists across north Belfast.
“Over 4,000 people on the housing waiting list living in hostels, doubling up with families, sofa surfing, yet these sites earmarked for social housing, ie, Nelson Street, Fredrick Street and Donegall Street all taken over by private developers for student accommodation despite the needs of our communities,” he said.
“By the time they run out of vacant sites for student accommodation Belfast City will resemble Manhattan in New York and the 4,000 people on the housing waiting list may well have to immigrate just like their fore fathers did on the £10 tickets for Australia or wherever.”
Representatives of Mandeville Developments Ltd were contacted.
