Alley Gates Resident Consultation Responses Essential
18.7.23
Belfast City Council (BCC) has identified a number of alleyways in Lower Oldpark where it is considering providing alley gates.
These locations, which were chosen by BCC and notified to Lower Oldpark Community Association (LOCA), are shown on the attached plans as yellow dots.
BCC recently sent out consultation letters inviting those residents who would be affected by new alley gates to fill in an online consultation questionnaire which is available at:
https://yoursay.belfastcity.gov.uk/alleygates5
If you require a hard copy of the questionnaire or would like further information on the alleygating scheme, please contact the Council on 028 90270469.
The purpose of the consultation is to ensure support for the scheme, identify possible problems and solutions and to allow for objections to be raised.
BCC advises that it is essential that residents complete the consultation or it will not be able to enact the legislation and will not be able to install gates.
The consultation period finishes on Monday 7th August 2023.
If you need any help with completing the questionnaire, you can also contact the LOCA Housing Project Worker, Gary Hughes, on 028 96928283 or email loweroldparkhousing@gmail.com or Facebook message @loweroldparkhousing .
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Courts' Project Unmaintained Grassed Area
Lower Oldpark Neglected Planted Areas - Progress?
10.7.23
New planted areas which were provided across Lower Oldpark as part of the Courts' Environmental Improvement Scheme have not been looked after since the scheme was completed in early 2022.
Responsibility for the maintenance of these patches will pass to the Northern Ireland Housing Executive (NIHE) but, before this, there is a process of 'Abandonments' and Extinguishments' that has to be gone through. This started last year and is nearing completion.
Last summer, Lower Oldpark Community Association (LOCA) asked the NIHE to maintain these planted areas before it took formal responsibility for them.
LOCA knew that if this didn't happen, these patches of land, which were supposed to improve the appearance of the area, would be neglected and become overgrown with weeds and covered in litter.
The NIHE didn't maintain the planted areas before they took on formal responsibility and they became heavily overgrown and covered in litter.
After pressure from LOCA, the head of NIHE Belfast Place Shaping section today advised LOCA of the following:
-The new planted areas are being put back on the NIHE grounds' maintenance work schedule.
-The NIHE intends to cut the overgrown grassed areas as soon as possible. No date provided.
-The other planted areas will receive some replanting which cannot be done until September as early autumn is the best time for new planting.
- Before the replanting, a litter pick and general tidy up will be organised. No date provided.
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Courts' Project Unmaintained Grassed Area
Weed Spraying Starts In Lower Oldpark
19.5.23
Weed spraying of the pavements, gullies and courts of Lower Oldpark started 17th May 2023..
This is very welcome as parts of of the neighborhood were beginning to look like meadows.
LOCA understands that over the last two years, work was delayed due to contractual problems the Department for Infrastructure had.
Following the spraying, the weeds should die off over the next couple of weeks. If there are any missed bits, please let LOCA know.
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Lower Oldpark Housing Regeneration Site
Long Awaited Housing Scheme Begins
19.5.23
A Lower Oldpark social housing scheme, first given the go ahead in early 2018, has finally started.
The building contractor for the ten houses and two bungalows, Kelly Brothers, went on site at Alloa Street just after Easter.
The scheme developer for the 8 three-bedroom and 4 two bedroom units is Clanmil Housing which refurbished 26 vacant and decaying houses in Mountview Street and Manor Drive a number of years ago.
Work on the 12 new homes is programmed to last 18 months which means that the houses, all being well, should be complete in autumn 2024.
Lower Oldpark Community Association (LOCA) very much welcomes the start of work to a scheme that has been dogged by delays since it was first given the go ahead in early 2018.
LOCA thanks Clanmil Housing for maintaining its commitment to this Lower Oldpark housing development over the five year period and especially when the scheme was under threat due to the intervention of NI Water during the planning application process.
This social housing development is very important to the Lower Oldpark neighbourhood. It will provide much needed social housing.
The development will also play a very valuable role in the physical regeneration of the Lower Oldpark neighbourhood.
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Lower Oldpark Housing Regeneration Site
Lower Oldpark Social Housing Scheme To Start
10.3.23
Building work on twelve new social homes in Lower Oldpark is expected to start in mid-April 2023.
The developer of the ten houses and two bungalows, Clanmil Housing, has told Lower Oldpark Community Association (LOCA) that the appointed building contractor, Kelly Bothers, will be going on site probably following the Easter break.
The formal contract between Clanmil and Kelly Brothers was signed on 21st March and the formal start date is 27th March 2023.
LOCA very much welcomes this important landmark for a scheme that has been dogged by delays since it was first given the go ahead by the Housing Executive in early 2018.
LOCA thanks Clanmil Housing for maintaining its commitment to this Lower Oldpark housing development over the five year period and especially when the scheme was under threat due to the intervention of NI Water during the planning application process.
This social housing development is very important to the Lower Oldpark neighbourhood. It will provide much needed social housing, including 7 three-bedroom houses, 1 three-bedroom bungalow, 3 two-bedroom houses and 1 two-bedroom bungalow.
The development will also play a very valuable role in the physical regeneration of the Lower Oldpark neighbourhood.
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Lower Oldpark Housing Regeneration Site
Ombudsman Fails To Investigate NIHE
10.3.23
Lower Oldpark Community Association (LOCA) is deeply concerned at the decision of the Northern Ireland Public Services Ombudsman (NIPSO) not to investigate a series of complaints by LOCA against the Northern Ireland Housing Executive (NIHE), including one against its previous Chairman Professor Peter Roberts.
LOCA’s complaints against the NIHE were made to NIPSO at the end of May 2022.
Seven months later, NIPSO informed LOCA that it had decided that it was prevented by legislation from accepting LOCA’s complaint and that it could take no further action.
This was based on the view taken by NIPSO that LOCA’s complaints related to matters of general concern and were not made by a member of the public who claims to have sustained an injustice.
The first important point to be made is that the legislation governing NIPSO (the Public Services Ombudsman Act (Northern Ireland)) does allow organisations such LOCA to make complaints about injustice it has sustained.
Secondly, LOCA is very strongly of the view that its complaints were not issues of general concern but related to specific injustices arising from the actions of the NIHE.
Initially, LOCA had made seven complaints to NIPSO about the NIHE’s actions but this was subsequently reduced to six.
One of the six complaints related directly to the failure of the NIHE former Chairman, Professor Peter Roberts, to reply to three letters from LOCA, something LOCA regarded as an intentional act of non-engagement by the Chairman.
Professor Roberts completed his term as NIHE Chairman in early November 2022. The previous NIHE Chief Executive, Clark Baillie had also adopted a non-engagement approach with LOCA.
LOCA’s other complaints were about the NIHE providing misleading information, withholding information and about creating avoidable delays.
All the complaints were connected with the release of sites for development in the Lower Oldpark neighbourhood.
Complaints against public bodies such as the NIHE normally have to go through that organisation’s complaints procedure before they can be submitted to NIPSO.
However, the legislation governing NIPSO (the Public Services Ombudsman Act (Northern Ireland)) allows a complaint directly to NIPSO in special circumstances.
LOCA submitted its complaints directly to NIPSO on the grounds that any investigation by the NIHE would involve lower level NIHE officers investigating the NIHE Chairman and, potentially, other senior NIHE officers.
It was LOCA’s view that the ability of these lower level officers to act independently in relation to LOCA’s complaints was compromised by their lower level position compared to the NIHE Chairperson and other senior NIHE officers.
Strangely, NIPSO decided it was acceptable for lower level NIHE officers to investigate persons at or near the top of the NIHE organisation structure.
When LOCA submitted its complaint in May 2022, at the same time it informed the NIHE it would be making the complaints to NIPSO and provided the NIHE with information relating to the issues of the complaint. LOCA did not submit any complaints to the NIHE.
The NIHE then contacted NIPSO and advised it of the NIHE’s intention to deal with the complaints as a Second Stage complaint.
This assertive approach by the NIHE towards NIPSO is surprising and concerning. The NIHE did not seek the agreement of NIPSO but simply informed it of what it was going to do.
Also surprising and concerning is that NIPSO simply accepted this from the NIHE and told LOCA that it should complete the NIHE complaints procedure.
LOCA asked NIPSO to review its decision and it agreed to this. However, it never informed LOCA of the outcome of the review and LOCA is unaware if a review was actually carried out.
What is very worrying is that up until the time of the NIHE’s intervention, NIPSO had not challenged LOCA on having made a complaint directly to NIPSO.
LOCA had another concern about having to use the NIHE’s complaint procedure.
LOCA became aware that the NIHE officer the NIHE appointed to carry out its own investigation into LOCA’s complaints may have been involved in the NIHE’s decision making on matters related to LOCA’s complaints.
This would mean that a NIHE officer who may have been involved in decisions that led to LOCA’s complaints would be investigating those complaints. This would be completely unacceptable.
LOCA highlighted this to NIPSO as a further reason that the NIHE should not investigate itself. However, NIPSO did not indicate any concern.
LOCA provided NIPSO with the opportunity to respond to LOCA’s above concerns but it chose not to.
The opportunities for LOCA to challenge NIPSO’s management of LOCA’s complaints against the NIHE are very limited. NIPSO advised LOCA it can seek a judicial review if it is unhappy but this would be a long, difficult and expensive process.
LOCA believes that NIPSO has serious questions to answer and that its failure to respond to LOCA highlights the need for a new investigation of LOCA’s complaints and how they were handled by NIPSO.
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Why Is the NIHE Sitting On Sites?
21.2.23
The Northern Ireland Housing Executive (NIHE) owns 21 Greater Shankill sites that could be developed for housing but there has been very limited progress with most of these.
Between January 2010 and November 2022, the NIHE released only three sites it owned onto the market for private housing development.
The largest of these sites was used for the development of private housing at Lawnbrook Avenue. No development has taken place on the other two small sites.
In January 2023, the NIHE informed Lower Oldpark Community Association (LOCA) that it ‘does not currently intend to release any sites within the Housing Executive Shankill local office boundary to the open market or to a housing association for the development of private housing’ before November 2023.
Alongside social housing provision, private owner-occupier housing development has made an important contribution to the physical, social and economic regeneration of the Greater Shankill since the 1980’s.
A survey by LOCA identified 26 successful private housing developments across the Greater Shankill.
Why is it that the NIHE has released so few sites for private housing development in the Greater Shankill and appears to intend to continue this approach?
The attitude of the NIHE towards the release of sites for private development will be strongly affected by whether it addresses the matter seriously and substantially within the Corporate and Business Plan it is currently preparing for the period 2022/23 to 2024/25. The draft Plan that was made available for consultation provides little hope of the issue being addressed seriously or substantially.
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NIHE Holding Back Greater Shankill Regeneration
31.1.23
NIHE Land Banking
Large scale land banking by the Northern Ireland Housing Executive (NIHE) continues to substantially slow the regeneration of the Greater Shankill (including Lower Oldpark).
Data obtained and recently made available by LOCA shows that the NIHE is the largest land banker in the Greater Shankill.
The Greater Shankill has 53 vacant sites suitable for development.
The NIHE owns 20 of these outright (38 percent) and partially owns one site.
The total area of the 20 NIHE sites exceeds 16 hectares.
Limited Physical Development Progress
Further analysis of the data, in terms of the level of development progress that has taken place, highlights the very limited physical development progress there has been across the 21 NIHE owned sites.
The data for the Greater Shankill shows that 11 of the 21 sites (52 percent) have seen No Recent Development Progress which is the lowest level of progress.
One site is subject to an Economic Appraisal Preparation process which also represents a low level of development progress.
One site is On the Three-year Social Housing Development Programme but has seen no other development progress. Again, a low level of progress.
Five of the NIHE 21 sites (24 percent) are at the Feasibility Stage which indicates moderate development progress.
One site is subject to an Outline Planning Application, although no sites have current Full Planning Applications linked to them.
Of the 21 NIHE sites, only two (10 percent) have reached the highest levels of development progress. A start to building work is subject to discussions for one of these while an on site building work start is imminent for the other.
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Greater Shankill Faces Massive Regeneration Challenge
16.1.23
Data obtained by Lower Oldpark Community Association shows the massive scale of the physical regeneration challenge facing the Greater Shankill.
53 Vacant Greater Shankill Sites
The Greater Shankill has fifty three vacant sites that could be developed. However, most of these have seen no, or little, progress towards physical development in recent years. Given this, the timeframe for regenerating the Greater Shankill, including Lower Oldpark, seems very long.
Little Development Progress
The data shows that only one site holds the potential of a start to building work in the near future, while a start to work on another site is subject to further discussions. Both these sites have live development planning permission i.e. it was provided during the last five years.
Over half of the sites (27) have had no, or no known, recent development progress.
Six of the remaining sites have a live full planning permission for development. Of these, only one received the permission within the last two years while the other five received their permissions between 2 and 5 years ago. A further two sites have outline planning approval.
Four sites are subject to current full planning applications while one is subject to an outline application.
Seven sites are subject to feasibility study for development. This is an early stage of the overall development process.
Two sites are on the market for sale.
Land Banking
A major problem the Greater Shankill faces is land banking. which involves public or private sector landowners holding or purchasing sites but not starting or completing physical development on these sites.
The Northern Ireland Housing Executive (NIHE) is the largest land banker in the Greater Shankill. It owns 20 of the 53 sites outright (38 percent) and partially owns one site. The total area of 20 NIHE sites exceeds 16 hectares.
The Department for Communities (DfC) owns eight (15 percent) of the fifty three sites.
Of the remaining 24 sites, 15 (28 percent of the total) are fully in the hands of private landowners.
The remaining sites are owned by a range of public bodies.
Freedom of Information Requests
Private Housing
On 18th November 2022, LOCA submitted a series of Freedom of Information requests to the NIHE and received a response on 12th January 2023.
The information provided by the NIHE indicates that, between January 2010 and November 2022, the NIHE released only three sites it owned onto the market for private housing development. The total area of the three sites is 0.76 hectares with 0.67 of this area comprising a site in Lawnbrook Urban Renewal Area. The three sites were released by the NIHE between 2015 and 2021 with none having been released during the five years up to 2015.
Of even greater concern is that the NIHE, in response to a LOCA FOI request, advised that it currently does not intend to release any sites within the NIHE Shankill local office boundary for private housing development before 18th November 2023.
Social Housing
In response to another LOCA FOI request, the NIHE provided an updated housing need assessment projection for the NIHE Shankill area. The projection anticipates a need for 128 social houses between 2022 and 2027 i.e. 25 per year.
A Long Regeneration Process
With such a limited projected need for social housing and the NIHE having no plans to release sites for private development, the people of the Greater Shankill should prepare themselves for a snail’s pace regeneration process that will take decades.
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NIHE Repairs Service During Current Industrial Action
21.11.22
A strike involving workers with maintenance contractors employed by the Northern Ireland Housing Executive (NIHE) in North Belfast and other areas continues with no clear end date in sight.
The industrial action by members of the Unite Union began on 3rd September 2022.
Since then, the NIHE has focused on responding to Emergency repair requests which are normally carried out by the NIHE on the same day or within 24 hours.
To be treated as an emergency, the fault must carry the risk of immediate injury to people or major damage to property. Examples of emergency repairs are:
• Escape of gas or fumes.
• Electrical fittings in contact with water.
• Live or bare electric wiring.
• Sewage overflowing into the home.
• Outside doors that need secured.
• Burst storage tanks, cylinders or pipes.
• Failure of all lights or all power.
• Failure of heating systems in severe weather and where no alternative is available.
• Failure of all communal lighting.
However, while the strike is on, when a tenant contacts the NIHE about an Urgent repair, which is normally done with 4 working days, or a Routine repair which should be done within four weeks, the repair request is put on hold.
This means that the NIHE probably won’t be able to do the work before the strike is over, although, if it can, it will.
When Urgent and Routine jobs can be released to a contactor to be carried out, the NIHE North Belfast Maintenance Office will do this in the order in which they were received from tenants. Of course, Urgent jobs will be done quicker than Routine jobs.
The NIHE North Belfast Office currently has over 400 repairs jobs on hold due to the industrial action so, when it ends, it will take some time for outstanding repair work to be carried out.
The NIHE recognises that this is a very frustrating time and asks for understanding and patience from its tenants.
The NIHE Repairs switchboard is currently coping with a very heavy workload at a time of reduced staffing levels. If tenants are finding it difficult to get through by phone, they can report a repair online - https://www.nihe.gov.uk/My.../Repairs/Report-a-repair
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LOCA Welcomes Belfast Agenda Vacant Sites Issue Recognition
21.11.22
Lower Oldpark Community Association has welcomed the recognition of the widespread problem of neighbourhood vacant sites in the updated Belfast Agenda consultation document prepared by Belfast City Council along with 'key city partners' and covering the next four years.
The Belfast Agenda is a community plan for the city and covers many issues including community and neighbourhood regeneration, housing, Belfast city centre, equality, diversity and inclusion, dealing with climate change and education.
LOCA has, for some time, been lobbying to have the problem of vacant sites in neighbourhoods across Belfast recognised in the updated Belfast Agenda and for Actions to be identified to address the problem.
In the updated consultation Belfast Agenda, a newly added Action refers to developing a targeted approach to vacancy and dereliction in local neighbourhoods. This is positive but LOCA has asked that there is a clear reference to vacant sites and buildings and that there is more clarity about what a targeted approach involves.
The draft Belfast Agenda also provides for the delivery of one 'place shaping project' of scale. LOCA has said the the Council that this seems unambitious.
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