All hands on deck! Belfast Pitches Strategy out now for consultation

First, a warm welcome and ‘thank you’ to all our recent supporters in the petition to Save Botanic Meadow. We are well now on the way to 5,100 signatures - a fantastic sign of support for Botanic Meadow and nature-rich green spaces in the city.

Secondly, another request! The long-awaited Pitches Strategy has been published by Belfast City Council (BCC). This is the strategy that we were informed back in February (by some local politicians’ social media accounts) will see the loss of Botanic Meadow and its conversion into a sports pitch. 

Our request is that you please respond to this consultation. We will be doing what we can as a campaign, but individual actions make all the difference. Every email, letter and question to our local politicians counts and is noted. We will be posting more detail on the website (botanicmeadow.com) in the coming fortnight but in the meantime, here are some tips. 

The Consultation on the Pitches Strategy is open until 8 December.

The online survey for the consultation is here. It is a short survey with quite leading/unhelpful questions, which focus on the strategy on its own terms, but it is worth completing as a means of expressing concern.

The local councillors in the Botanic Ward District Electoral Area are (with email addresses hyperlinked): Cllr Aine Groogan (Green) 
Cllr Tracy Kelly (DUP)
Cllr Emmet McDonagh-Brown (Alliance)
Cllr Conor McKay (SF)
Cllr Gary McKeown (SDLP)

There are 3 main points that may be raised:

• Process: The ‘Gunning principles’  on public consultations are not met, e.g. the proposals are clearly not a formative stage and there is insufficient information provided (i.e. no specific sits or costs given). 
• Implications: Publicly-owned parks & open spaces to be viewed as potential development land for organised sport, ignoring their value for wellbeing & nature.
• Better planning: The Strategy contradicts other BCC commitments for climate resilience, which would be better met by a strategy of better use/sharing of existing resources.

More detail to follow, but this is just an initial headsup and request for action! 

Thank you for your willingness to play a part in saving green spaces in Belfast for nature, for everyone, for future generations.