A plan for a new school car park in West Belfast has been delayed for councillors to have a site visit.
Elected representatives at Belfast City Council ’s recent Planning Committee agreed to defer an application for the provision of a car park with 24 spaces for Springfield Primary School, including access road and fencing. The site is at 425 Springfield Road, and the application is by the Colin Bingham Education Authority, Armagh.
The application is being recommended by council officers to elected representatives, despite running contrary to council policy. The council states the key issues surrounding are loss of zoned economic land, loss of open space, access, movement, parking, drainage and flood risk.
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The planning report states: “The loss of employment land is relatively small and there is ample supply of employment land in the area. (It) is considered to be outweighed by the benefits of the scheme in terms of improving highway safety for children, parents and staff, and reducing congestion during peak hours. In the planning balance, the proposal is considered acceptable.”
The Stormont Department for Infrastructure Roads and Rivers divisions are making no objection to the proposal, subject to conditions. No third-party objections were received in relation to the proposal from residents or business.
235 letters of support have been received which include 26 letters from members of staff, individual letters from pupils and parents, two emails from parents to the headmaster raising concerns with safety, a group letter from the pupils council, a letter from the governor of Springfield Primary School and a letter from family support groups.
The council planning report summarised the support, stating: “Springfield Road as a main arterial route experiences a large volume of accidents, speeding cars and car crashes which is exacerbated by the neighbour police and fire stations and College. Children’s safety should override zoning issues.
“(There are) on-going complaints from neighbours regarding parking – the off-road parking should be favourably considered. Between December 2010 and November 2020, 186 road casualties took place between Isadore Avenue and Mill Race, according to PSNI statistics. A lack of parking forces cars to park along the road which forces prams and wheelchairs off the footpath onto the road. This proposal creates a safe drop off/ pick up area for children.”
The proposal however does run contrary to council policy, which stresses that "land zoned for industrial and commercial use is reserved for appropriate types of development.”
That includes zoned land being used for light and industrial manufacturing, warehousing or stock-housing, car and commercial vehicle sales including showrooms, servicing, storage, but excluding breaking and scrap/dismantling. Zoned land can also be used for repair businesses, builders suppliers with their associated open storage, training centres, vehicle inspection and driving test centres, and services catering for local needs, e.g. banks, cafes.
The planning report states: “The proposal does not fall under an industrial or commercial use or any of the uses listed above. It is therefore contrary to policy.”
However the report also points out the policy’s room for exception, which states: “‘In the case of planning applications involving a departure from a development plan zoning, for example from light industrial use to a mixed use development, planning officers should be fully satisfied that it has been clearly demonstrated how the special circumstances of a particular case outweigh the preferred option of retaining the land for economic development use.”
Council officers state that the “special circumstances” are Springfield Primary School’s existing poor access and parking arrangements, “which result in congestion during peak hours and compromise highway safety.”
The report states the plan will “enable the school to provide a car park that meets educational standards” and “will improve the wellbeing and safety of pupils, guardians, staff and visitors to the primary school.” It adds: “there is no other obvious alternative land to provide the proposed car park” and the loss of employment land “would be minimal and the proposal would not prejudice the development of the adjacent land for employment purposes.”
The application will return to the Planning Committee later this month.
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