Victorian 'Athletic Stores' To Be Razed

There's opposition to a fresh decision to demolish a landmark Victorian building in the centre of Belfast.

Belfast Alliance Councillor Catherine Curran has today proposed that Belfast City Council's Planning Committee should oppose the demolition of the Athletic Stores building and has called for the planners to re-consider and reject the decision to allow the demolition of the building.

She was speaking after the committee backed a move to raze the Athletic Stores building and have it replaced by a multi-storey apartment complex.

The future of the building had been the subject of a legal row since plans to replace it first emerged in 2009 with a legal bid to stop the Athletic Stores site from being torn down and rebuilt brought by the Ulster Architectural Heritage Society.

It launched a judicial review of the Planning Service's original decision.

In January 2010, a High Court judge ordered the Planning Service to reconsider its original decision to allow the scheme but an application was presented to Belfast City Council in June with a recommendation to approve.

Councillors have now approved the application during a meeting last Thursday.

Alliance Councillor Catherine Curran said: "The planners should re-consider all the options again. There are clear alternatives to demolition, which should be examined, and I believe that renovation offers the best way forward.

"It is crucial that we have a balance for the city's future which enables the protection of our heritage.

"It is the planners who make the final decision and I would call on the planners to refuse the approval for the demolition. This is a magnificent building and its role as a former linen mill is a very significant part of our proud economic and industrial heritage," she said.

Sinn Fein Councillor Mairtin O'Muilleoir also said that his party voted against the proposal to demolish what he defined as the former Swanston's Linen Warehouse/Athletic Stores at last week's meeting of the committee.

"Sinn Fein believes this building is a jewel in the crown of Belfast and epitomises the unique character Belfast needs to protect if it is to market itself as a distinct, modern European city respectful of its past while moving into the future," he told the BBC.

"We are particularly disappointed that neither developers nor planners engaged with the Forum for Alternative Belfast, Ulster Architectural Heritage Society (UAHS) or Belfast Buildings Preservation Trust to discuss their detailed proposals on how this key building could be saved.

Rita Harkin from the Ulster Architectural Heritage Society said the society had written to the Environment Minister Alex Attwood following the granting of approval.

"The UAHS has written to Mr Attwood, to ask if he is to call in the application and take the final decision himself as he promised," she said.

"If it is not overturned at this stage then the society may be obliged to use its very limited resources to challenge the department once again in the High Court.

Carlisle Property Developments Ltd is to transform the Athletic Stores site into a seven-storey complex with 69 apartments, street level shops and basement parking facilities after the City Council said that the old building is structurally unsound.

But all is not lost as the Stormont Environment Minister Alex Attwood has said he will "have a say" in the future of a landmark building in Belfast which has been earmarked for demolition.

He was commenting over the summer after planners initially gave consent to knock down the Athletics Stores building and said that "he would listen to the concerns of councillors and heritage campaigners".

"Ultimately I will have my say and determine this approval myself," he said.

"I will make a judgement based on where there is economic benefit and where there is a need to protect the built heritage," he said.

See: Athletic Stores Plan 'Exercises Minister'

(BMcC/GK)