Sangars go as Laganside legacy

The sangars are to be removed and the area pedestrianised Enlarge Image

Once Belfast's Waterfront area was a forgotten wasteland, with plenty of industrial architecture but little living industry.

The government set about changing things through Laganside Corporation 17 years ago, which used public money to attract private investors to the banks of the River Lagan.

The result was a transformed city centre. Laganside is about to be wound up, but not before one last project - removing the security that kept the bombers away from the city's law courts.

Laganside Corporation's final infrastructure programme is funding a £1.5m Streetscape scheme to transform Chichester Street in front of the courts.

It will see the removal of the last security barriers and sangars in the city centre creating a link between Laganside, Victoria Square and the city centre.

Tony Hopkins, the chairman of Laganside Corporation said that it was "physically and psychologically very important".

Years of change

"It has been one of the targets not simply to revitalise the riverside area but to make sure it integrates with the city centre," he said.

He said the link, to be completed in spring 2007, would open the area to cyclists and pedestrians.

CHANGE ALONG THE LAGAN

The statue of the Speaker in Custom House Square In pictures

"We've had 17 years of great change in Belfast - it's hard to remember what it was like before that," he said.

He said that 14,000 jobs had been created in the area over the years and that they had made sure the local population did benefit and that they had kept close to the local community.

"We were not very happy with the idea of creating jobs which all went to people from North Down or Antrim," he said.

He added that they hoped developments in the area would continue.

"What we have been trying to do is provide a platform so it is now up to others - the DSD, city council and private developers - to take on the momentum £1bn will have been invested by March 2007 over our period of life and that I hope is just a start," he said.

Mr Hopkins said that 2m tourists in a year meant that Belfast was firmly on the map and that there had been a "ripple effect" for the city in the development of these areas.

The changes are not just in the removal of the high profile defensive installations, but also in the sort of buildings that are now being erected in the city.

"When we started some of the buildings were built to be bomb proof - because it was pre the ceasefire, that far back," he said.

"Now the buildings that are coming forward are much more interesting we are bringing new architects in all the time because this is the place to be doing business."