RSUA responds to the Belfast Agenda: Draft Strategic Plan 2023 – 2027
04/10/2023
Belfast City Council (BCC) launched a consultation seeking views on the Belfast Agenda: Draft Strategic Plan 2023-2027. Feedback received from this consultation will help to ensure that the proposed plan, strategy and actions focus on the right things and deliver the right outcomes for the people they are intended to benefit.
The deadline to this consultation was 2nd October 2023. RSUA formulated a response alongside the RSUA Belfast City Council Local Group. RSUA would especially like to thank Ciaran Mackel and Saul Golden for their help and contributions.
Points from RSUA’s response include:
- Firstly, RSUA believes it is important to commend much of the Draft Strategic Plan as there is much value in the ambitions, themes, and priorities. However, the emerging vision for the city needs stronger visual and graphic representation to convey the potential physical implications of the ambitions to increase the employment numbers; to reduce the carbon emissions, and to increase the population in the city.
- The plan to 2035 is too short in the continuum of a city’s growth and we urge that Belfast City Council, its Departmental partners and others, prepare a long-term strategy that would chart the ambitions for a 50- to 100-year plan for the city and the wider metropolitan area.
- The document is light on any reference to aesthetic values or to an ambition for design quality. Creativity and innovation in design and construction and an ethos which promotes beauty, innovation and sustainability is a key guiding principle of the Policy for Architecture and the Built Environment and should resonate throughout this document. It will be the continuing development of a distinctive and authentic urban environment that will meet the needs of citizens that will attract tourists for repeat visits and longer-stay durations.
To view RSUA’s full response, please click here.
If you have any queries regarding RSUA’s response, please contact Lucy Mulgrew via lucy@rsua.org.uk