Belfast Focuses On Giant's Park

A major conference is taking place in Belfast this week which is looking at the regeneration and development of Giant's Park - the former Dargan Road landfill site.

Belfast City Council hosted the SufalNet4EU Conference which brought around 70 delegates from ten European member states to the city.

The conference in the City Hall was chaired by local economist and journalist John Simpson and focused primarily on attracting public and private finance for landfill regeneration.

SufalNet4EU (Sustainable Use of Former and Abandoned Landfill Network For You) is an Interreg IVC funded project designed to facilitate the sharing of a best practice approach to landfill regeneration.

The project is led by the province of Noord-Brabant in the Netherlands and Belfast City Council has been a partner since its inception in 2005.

The objective of SufalNet4EU is the preparation of site specific Action Plans setting out the methodology and process by which selected landfill sites can be made safe and brought into use to provide community benefits on a local and regional scale.

Welcoming the delegates to the City Hall on Wednesday, Belfast Mayor Councillor Niall Ó Donnghaile, said: "Belfast is at the forefront of landfill regeneration and the Giant’s Park is the largest landfill regeneration project in Europe.

"The council recognised a unique opportunity to redevelop the site and in doing so, provide great social, economic and environmental benefits for the whole of Belfast.

"The past four years have been spent making the site safe and preparing for redevelopment. Environmental protection measures, primarily site capping and a landfill gas extraction system, have been installed.

"Future plans for the site include the provision of a landmark public park with leisure and recreation facilities to serve the whole of the city and beyond as well as an innovative Environmental Resource Recovery Park," he said.

Simon Middelkamp, President of SufalNet4EU, said: "I would like to thank the Mayor for welcoming us to the City Hall and the council for hosting the SufalNet Coordination Conference in Belfast.

"The Belfast case looking at the redevelopment of the North Foreshore into the Giant's Park is giving our SufalNet4EU project best practices in how to involve the community in planning new uses on closed landfill sites.

"The Belfast case also provides us with best practice in financing a public area with private funding by attracting investors."

The delegates will visit Giant’s Park later as part of their visit as well as take in other parts of the city including the Titanic Quarter.

The North Foreshore Giant's Park comprises 340 acres and is the largest landfill regeneration project in Europe.

The council has already made significant progress towards developing the site. The land has been capped and methane, a potent greenhouse gas from decomposing waste, is collected and used to generate 'green' electricity at a new electricity generation facility, opened two years ago.

A new Waste Transfer Station at the site also manages Belfast's black bin waste and plans for a brown bin organic waste composting facility are progressing.

(GK/BMcC)