Agenda item

            The case officer provided the Committee with the principal aspects of the application for a new children’s hospital and associated infrastructure, which incorporated the demolition of Bostock House.

            He drew the Committee’s attention to the Late Items reports pack, where a consultation response had been received from Environmental Health, which offered further conditions, relating to noise mitigation, vibration management and a further risk assessment post-demolition of Bostock House.  He outlined the response of the Planning Department to the aforementioned issues raised.    

            The Committee was further advised of the consultation response from Shared Environmental Services, as included in the Late Items pack, which expressed no objections.

            The Committee received representation from Councillor Beattie.  He stated that, while he was not against the proposals for a new children’s hospital, he had concerns regarding the impact that the development would have on the surrounding streets.  He advised the Committee that there was already a very high number of cars parking in the surrounding residential streets instead of within the hospital complex.  He explained that the Department for Infrastructure (DfI) had carried out a Traffic Survey of the area in 2018, which showed that that the parking spaces on the surrounding streets of the Royal Group of Hospitals site were 100% occupied.  He emphasised to the Members that the survey had been carried out on a day when St. Mary’s University was closed and that the majority of its students also drove to the site.  He stated that the DfI was currently considering a residents’ parking scheme for the streets adjacent to the Hospital site.  He asked that the Committee considered deferring consideration of the proposals in order to undertake a visit to the site.

The Committee was advised that Mr. L. Walsh, Department for Infrastructure (DfI), was in attendance, as one of the statutory consultees, and that Ms. U. Somerville, AECOM, and Ms. E. Greenlees, Transport Consultant, were also in attendance to answer Members’ questions.

            Ms. Greenlees advised the Committee that, in light of comments from DfI Roads, the Belfast Health and Social Care Trust had outlined its commitment to developing a site specific Travel Plan for the Royal Group of Hospitals site.  She explained that AECOM had worked with the Trust to create the draft Travel Plan for the site.  The case officer explained that copies of the recently published draft Travel Plan would be circulated to the Members of the Committee.

            A Member stated that it was essential, given that the application was for a children’s hospital, that parents could park at the hospital while visiting their sick children and that parents were unlikely to cycle or travel by bus to do so.

A further Member suggested that there should be incentives to encourage more staff to park on the site, such as reduced rates, to reduce the amount of staff cars that were parked on the surrounding residential streets for entire days or nights.

In response to Members’ questions, Mr. Walsh confirmed that 70% of the 2700 parking spaces on site were for staff.  He explained that the Department’s view was that to add more parking spaces to the site would only make the situation worse.  He outlined that the draft Travel Plan for the site had been drawn up in accordance with Planning Policy and the Programme for Government.  He explained that, over the 6 years in which the new hospital would be built, one of the aims would be to encourage a reduction in car use by staff, and to incentivise more staff to use sustainable methods of transport. 

In response to a number of further comments from Members, Mr. Walsh advised the Committee that, while it was not possible for all staff to use public transport or other sustainable methods, it was important to try and change the mind-set of those staff members who chose to drive to their place of work when they had access to other options.

            Ms. Somerville stated that the Glider service, which operated along the Falls Road, was an example of how sustainable transport had evolved since the Pre-Application Discussion had begun.

Proposal

            Moved by Councillor Canavan,

            Seconded by Councillor Campbell and

      Resolved - That the Committee agrees to defer consideration of the application to enable a site visit to be undertaken to allow the Committee to acquaint itself with the location and the proposals at first hand and further agrees that:

·         during the site visit, the Committee would also visit the surrounding residential streets;

·         the site visit would take place during hospital visiting hours;

·         a briefing for Members would be arranged to discuss the travel Plan for the site;

·         a travel consultant from DfI would attend the briefing and site visit; and

·         the Draft Framework Travel Plan would be circulated to Members of the Committee.