Belfast Council has voted to refuse an application to build what would have been Northern Ireland’s largest student accommodation block

At a meeting of Belfast City Council’s planning committee this week a proposal to reject a council officer’s recommendation to approve a 795 unit building was successful, but without unanimous backing from the chamber.

The proposed development site, at lands bounded by Library Street, Stephen Street, Little Donegall Street and Union Street, in the Carrick Hill area in the north of the city, currently comprises a vacant brownfield site used for car parking behind Belfast Central Library.

The proposal to reject the planning application was made by Sinn Féin, with an amendment from the Green Party. On a recorded vote the proposal won by seven votes for to four votes, with the DUP not supporting the proposal.

The decision however has yet to be finalised, as the proposal was deferred for the City Solicitor to draft refusal reasons to make the proposal legally tight, and to get further details on an assessment from the Stormont Historical Environment Division. Despite the deferral the committee decision will remain.

The plan was the latest and largest application of a raft of student accommodation projects across the city following the opening of the long-delayed new Ulster University campus, which opened to 15,000 students and staff last September. The largest scheme in Belfast so far to have been granted the green light is a 774-unit scheme by Student Roost on Nelson Street by Sailortown.

North Belfast MLA Carál Ní Chuilín and Carrick Hill representative Frank Dempsey appeared before the committee to explain their objections.

Carál Ní Chuilín said: “If this is granted, it will mean well over 8,000 student bed placements in that area. I am from the area, it is part of Carrick Hill, it is not a separate area. People live on Union Street.

“We are not anti-regeneration, in fact we have been arguing for regeneration for a long time, but we are talking about buildings that are sympathetic to buildings already there. I am thinking of the 3,000 people living in housing stress.”

Frank Dempsey told the chamber: “I was taken aback regarding the consultation the developers talked about. We told them distinctly we are opposed to this, because of the detrimental effect it will have on our community.”

He said a recent survey had shown 1,500 people opposed to the sites planned for student accommodation in the area, which he said were “destroying” the local community.

Sinn Féin councillor Ryan Murphy, who made the proposal to reject the plan, said: “The development there would be counterintuitive to the ambitions of the council to bring forward residential mixed tenure residential development within the wider Northwestern Masterplan site.”

Green councillor Áine Groogan, who made the amendment on the proposal, told the chamber: “ We are creating a bit of a concrete jungle here, with very little amenity for the prospective thousands of students, who deserve a quality residential environment as well.”

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