Sandy Row emergency taskforce to be set up to save district from decline

Belfast City Council is looking at options for a new taskforce to support businesses on the beleaguered Sandy Row.

Elected representatives at a City Hall committee meeting last Wednesday agreed a motion forwarded by DUP Councillor Tracy Kelly looking at setting up a body with other partners to try and save the once famous shopping area, which now has less than 30 businesses.

Councillors also agreed to look at an animation programme, such as that delievered in the past two years at Great Victoria Street, and a cost analysis for rates intake if all remaining businesses in the area were lost.

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At the December full meeting of Belfast City Council last week, three workers from Sandy Row businesses gave a deputation to elected representatives. Two stated they had lost 30 and 40 percent of business since the bridge closure and another stated the effects were “worse than Covid”.

Durham Street, which runs off Sandy Row, has been closed to allow for the dismantling of the Boyne Bridge, which is part of works relating to the creation of the new Grand Central Station, and the greater Weaver’s Cross plan for the area. Translink has said the whole redevelopment will be completed by the end of 2025.

However the works have created great disruption in the area, both on a cultural and economic level, with local groups opposing the demolition of the Boyne Bridge due to its cultural and historical significance, as well as the works decimating effects on local trade.

On Wednesday, at the council’s monthly meeting of the City Growth and Regeneration Committee, elected representatives unanimously agreed to Councillor Tracy Kelly’s motion.

It states that the council “recognises the importance of small businesses and the creation of a thriving economy in communities across our city and accepts that changes to infrastructure can have a significant impact on local businesses in the surrounding area".

It further “agrees that businesses in Sandy Row have been disadvantaged by the closure of the Boyne Bridge as part of the Grand Central Station development and recognises the struggle of business owners in the area to survive given the reduction in footfall”.

The motion lastly calls on the council “to look at options of re-opening the Boyne Bridge, and creating a Taskforce, alongside the Department of the Economy, Department for Communities, Translink and local business owners, to explore how businesses can be urgently supported”.

Councillor Kelly told the committee: “Working with the Transport Hub for the last 10 years, I don’t think anyone foresaw what was going to happen to trade on Sandy Row when that bridge closed. It was maybe something we all missed - the Council, Stormont and Translink.

“And there is no plan in place for them (the Sandy Row businesses). I spoke to them before the bridge closed and they said they would need three to four weeks to measure what the drop would be, if any. Coming back to me with 40 percent is very, very concerning.

“I am just asking the committee tonight for us to work with the traders in some way, to get some emergency planning there for over the next ten months, to see them through. Because I don’t think they are going to make it if there isn’t some intervention.”

She added: “There are not even 30 businesses on Sandy Row. I don’t need to tell anyone it was the most thriving shopping area in Belfast at one point. The Transport Hub was supposed to come in and help regenerate the community, and blah de blah blah.

“But we need a stakeholders group set up. The (Stormont) Department for Communities is willing to work with the council on some kind of intervention as a revitalisation scheme.

“If we look at Great Victoria Street, and the work we have done there, it has absolutely and utterly brought that community up, and the businesses have seen change since then. I am looking for some help like that, if we can, and some sort of animation to try and clean it up.

“The Christmas lights were mentioned (at the full council) and I have heard nothing but Christmas lights from residents today. They are shocked they are not going up. (Previously) they were always paid for by our villages - the community has the lights, it just doesn’t have the money to pay for the electricity. So that has been a downer on top of everything else.”

She said: “The other thing is rate relief. I don’t know how we would do that, but I would like our officers to give us a bit of guidance and some support if that is an option.”

The Deputy Lord Mayor, DUP Councillor Andrew McCormick said: “In the danger of asking for another report - can we look at the economic impact this would have, in terms of business rates, should those 30 businesses close in Sandy Row?

“Just the amount of rates we get from them. (It would be) in terms of just levelling that out against rates relief would actually cost in comparison to that. Because it may turn out to be a money saving exercise.” A council officer said this would be included in the taskforce report.

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