New housing development under fire from hardline loyalists

At a Belfast City Council town planning committee meeting on Thursday night, 18 September, unionist councillors combined to reject a planning application for a new housing development in nationalist West Belfast.

At the meeting, nine nationalist councillors voted for the new proposal, with nine unionists voting against. Ulster Unionist Ian Adamson, as chair, used his casting voteto reject the proposals. The planning application will now go before a full Belfast City Council meeting on Wednesday 1 October.

Unionist councillors from the Shankill area have vowed to continue their opposition to the proposed new housing development at the site of JP Corry's on the nationalist Springfield Road in West Belfast.

JP Corry's have applied for outline planning permission to substantially reduce the size of their builder's supplies and timber yard to build 250 much needed dwellings on the site.

Belfast councillor Frank McCoubrey, a member of Ulster Political Research Group (UPRG) the UDA's political mouthpiece, warned that if planning permission was granted, the loyalist community would take to the streets in peaceful protest.

"The reality is this will be a nationalist housing estate; the loyalist community is determined that not one brick for housing will be laid on this site," he said.

McCoubrey also claims he has information that suggests chemicals could have been spilt on the site and a environmental study should be done. Sinn Féin councillor for the Upper Springfield area, Marie Cush, described this claim as laughable. "This looks like another unionist stalling tactic and I think it is now quite clear that loyalists are hoping to stall the development so much that the developers will just give up and go away," she said.

Two other Shankill councillors, the PUP's Hugh Smyth and DUP member Elaine McMillen, are also backing unionist objections to the proposed estate.