Stormont Hotel care home bid: Sinn Fein override DUP and Alliance despite fears of East Belfast tourism blow, pushing through move by single vote
Sinn Fein have pushed through a plan that could change a major hotel in east Belfast into a care home, despite fears it would be a blow to an area that already needs help to boost its tourism draw.
DUP and Alliance politicians argued the care home idea goes against Belfast Council’s own policies that are trying to substantially boost tourism facilities across the entire city, including accommodation for visitors – but Sinn Fein got it approved anyway, putting it over the line by a majority of a single vote.
The Stormont Hotel is on Upper Newtownards Road, opposite the titular estate that’s home of the Northern Ireland Assembly.
Both the main body of the hotel and a conference centre that’s in regular use for big events at the assembly would become a combined 97-bed care home if the plans filed by a retirement home firm are put into action.
The nursing home idea hasn’t gone down well with locals, many of whom lodged objections arguing the move would significantly add to the area’s already severe traffic congestion while destroying the character of a district that’s popular with young parents.
And it split a Belfast Council committee on Tuesday night, with the DUP and Alliance arguing the hotel should stay as it is while Sinn Fein backed the change.
Arguing the shift would breach a council policy on boosting tourism, the DUP’s James Lawlor stated: “This application clearly represents the loss of a viable tourism facility in east Belfast.”
Alliance’s Hedley Abernethy said tourism in east Belfast “needs to be improved”.
He added: “It’s depressing seeing tourist buses going up to the Stormont estate, turning and going back to the Titanic Quarter – completely avoiding east Belfast.
“We need to do what we can to improve tourism output for the area; part of that is having good hotel accommodation, which we’re painfully short of.”
A vote saw nine councillors for and nine against the plan, all but one of the latter Sinn Fein. Committee chair, Sinn Fein’s Ryan Murphy, used his casting vote to push it through.
The hotel is still operating; owners the Hastings Group have described the planning application as “a speculative exercise being undertaken by a third party”, though they also said they “acknowledge the external interest in the site’s potential”.