First, thank you so much for signing the petition to Save Botanic Meadow. A lot has happened since it went live a week ago…
Belfast City Council: ‘unusual’ decision-making
A meeting of Belfast City Council on Monday revealed deep confusion around the decision to turn the Lower Botanic Gardens into a sports pitch, i.e. how it was made and whether there is a stay of execution.
On Monday, Alicia from Friends of the Field and Stranmillis Neighbourhood Association gave a brilliant speech to the Council. It was live-blogged by the Belfast Telegraph.
Things are so unclear (read: murky) as to where things stand that journalists are reporting different conclusions.
An Irish News/Belfast Media story reported that the Council has ‘delayed a decision on whether a GAA pitch should be installed in a South Belfast green space’. And the Belfast Telegraph says that ‘the council agreed to seek additional information on the matter prior to making a fully informed decision’ [which does not preclude the possibility that an uninformed decision has already been made].
A News Letter article indicates the pitch is going ahead, with claims that ‘Alliance has brought ultimately unsuccessful attempts to pause the [pitches] strategy at both Boucher Road and Lower Botanic Gardens’. And a detailed BelfastLive article gave specific details on how this happened:
‘The decision for the pitch was made on February 13th at a special meeting of the full Belfast Council, during an exchange between the Sinn Féin Party Group Leader Ciaran Beattie and the DUP Party Group Leader Sarah Bunting about the general council pitches strategy. No mention was made about the Botanic field in the exchange, or during the whole meeting.
The move appears to have blindsided the rest of the chamber, and caused confusion to onlookers who were unsure what had actually happened in terms of decision making. At least one official has described the decision making as "unusual."’
In light of this, we have queried the story in the Irish News/Belfast Media that Councillors have decided to delay. If the journalist is able to confirm this, then we will post an update right away.
Win-win compromise wishful thinking
We’ve added an image to the petition site so show that it is not possible to have even a ¾ pitch that does not remove woodland and community gardens, nor to have a year-round useable sports pitch that does not destroy the species-rich area.
A grass pitch would be unusable for 3–4 months each year due to flooding. A year‑round pitch would therefore require artificial turf with rubber‑crumb infill. This would worsen flooding by displacing water into a wider area and cause worsening environmental harm. A 2025 DEFRA report identified 3G pitches as the largest source of intentionally-added microplastics in the environment, and the EU has already decided to ban them by 2031 due to their negative health and ecological impacts.
SaveBotanicMeadow campaign is blossoming - thanks to you
To finish on a positive note: the campaign is going well, thank you! We have delivered 200+ flyers and put up 30 posters in the very local area. And the petition is now up on various social media platforms, most successfully on WhatsApp. Heartfelt thanks to everyone who has shared it. Please continue to do so.
We’re rapidly approaching the 1,500 signature mark, which is fantastic! When we see how many people use the meadow to walk, cycle and run through and around, we know this but a fraction of those affected by losing the field as an open green space…