Ownership question over city’s back alleys

Councillors deferred a motion to produce a new alley-gating programme across the city, citing complex issues over ownership pose legal and safety issues.

SDLP councillor Gary McKeown had forwarded a motion stating the council should determine “that a new funded alleygating programme” is included as part of the council’s recovery plan.

Recently there has been extensive media coverage of clean-ups, with residents of Rossmore Avenue and Ardmore Avenue off Ormeau Road turning their alley into a garden paradise just months after having gates installed.

Earlier ‘Wildflower Alley’ at Rugby Road in South Belfast became a multi-award-winning neighbourhood project, transforming a neglected alleyway into a vibrant community space.

Elizabeth Pantridge, a resident of the Sunnyside area of Upper Ormeau, addressed the council during the remote meeting.

She said for years the alleysways were treated as a “neglected wasteland only used on bin day”.

She added: “Then Covid hit and residents started to use the alleys to meet. We’ve started to clean a green space and for a month we’ve talked about how we would like to create a safe community space in our back alleys, and keep the momentum for community development going as lockdown eased. We feel strongly that in order to make our efforts sustainable, we need alley gates.”

However, the DUP and Sinn Fein both sounded a note of caution around residents regenerating alleyways themselves, given the complex issue of who owns them.

DUP alderman George Dorrian said: “A lot of these alleys are unadopted.

“We talk about regenerating and funding, that’s all well and good, but the current situation, as we understand it, is that if you take these on, and something goes wrong, and there is an injury for example, you are liable. Before we go on and talk about regenerating the alleyways across Belfast, we really need to get this issue sorted out.”

Sinn Fein councillor Ciaran Beattie said: “It is down to DFI to adopt the alleyways. And in a large number of cases they are reluctant to do so, because of the cost. In terms of the alley gates, it is the council doing this at risk,”

The council agreed to refer the motion.