Kevin McGovern


(Introduction from Councillor Ian Crozier):
Thank you Nigel for that very very positive response on behalf of the public sector. And I am sure that that is a response that all of us will seek to build upon as this debate progresses in the weeks and months ahead. Now I would like to invite Kevin McGovern from Buchanan & Partners to explain to us some of the work that he has carried out on the Belfast Master-plan. Kevin.

(Applause).

Kevin McGovern
Colin Buchanan and Partners

Good morning everybody and can I start by extending the welcome that has been extend by previous speakers to the science park.

I think as my presentation goes on this morning it will become very obvious why this is an absolutely ideal location for why we should be discussing all the issues that are being discussed today but in particular the Master-plan.

Like Michael I would like to declare an interest as to where I come from. For a very particular reason. Michael said he loves and was passionate about Liverpool. I'm actually from a small place up the road called Derry, which I love and am passionate about. But the reason I mention this is that if I might respectfully suggest there are three additional items I would put to your six ingredients for a successful city. And I think they were exemplified by the two politicians this morning and indeed by our colleague from the civil service.

Passion, believe and leadership are common themes that have come up through the course of this morning and I would be very keen that those sorts of intangible ingredients are part and parcel of what we are trying to achieve. It has been my privilege to be the project director for the Belfast Master-plan commission by Belfast City Council through its Development department.

Several of my colleagues who have worked on the project with me are also here today. We began this work about 16 months ago. I think one of the initial questions that was asked of us, why are Belfast City Council getting involved in an venture such as this? They are not the planning authority? They have, as Michael has pointed out, relatively limited powers compared to other local authorities throughout the UK. But [I would suggest] there are a number of very good reasons why this city council has taken the very bold step to prepare the Master-plan.

[The] first instance has really been generated by the need to have a coherent response to the BMAP process. Most of you here will be familiar with that. [It was] important for the civic leaders of this city to have a response to that process and to be able to influence that process.

[It was] also very important, I feel, that we were working within what was described as the regional context, as set down in the strategic framework for the province through the regional development strategy. But essentially what the Master-plan will ultimately do is to find the position of Belfast City Council. And that will enable the Master-plan to become a central reference point for the Council in future consultations and on discussion on singular issues such as the future development of the very place that we sit in today Titanic Quarter.

I think it takes us away from a statutory process which is largely one-dimensional land-use based. What we are looking at here is articulating a way ahead, a strategy for the city that takes account of the economy, land-use transport, environmental, social and public policy issues.

We have touched on several times this morning the question of governance and I am going to come onto that again later on in the presentation. But essentially what the Master-plan has thrown up is the whole question of how we are going to deliver. How we are going to shape the city. Not just what we actually want to achieve.

And I think the other very important point, which was a central part of our brief, was that we have to recognise that there has been an enormous amount of very good work that is being done and has been done across the city by a multitude of agencies and organisations. And part of our brief was to try to draw together, some of that best practice. Draw together some of that work that is actually already being done. So in some respects, some of you here today may see glimpses of work that you have been involved in.

We were not brought on board to simply reinvent the wheel but to try to pull together the different strands of work that is going on and articulate [them]. I will very briefly take you through some of these, but the[y] are essentially some of the challenges that we [began to recognise] very early on in the process. Some of these have actually been touched on already by previous speakers.

Population decline - certainly Belfast in line with many other UK cities has seen population decline. A situation exacerbated by the civil conflict over the last thirty years. Belfast has lost over 30% of its population from the city council area in the last three or four decades.

Very importantly, this was not going to be a Master-plan in what some people would describe as in the traditional sense. It wasn't going to be a grand design for Belfast. But it was essentially going to be grounded in some form of economic strategy. The strength of a city is not necessarily in the way it looks (although [that is] very important). The foundation of a city is the strength of its economy; the diversity of that economy.

Urban quality has been touched on and, I think, in some of the workshops that will be following on this morning, this is something which we will be looking at in term of physical development. The urban quality of Belfast is in many respects [far] behind some of our UK competitors. We have a long way to go to pick up and take on the challenge of urban quality. We want to make this a liveable city.

I think Councillor Crozier mentioned the fact that many people within the Belfast Metropolitan Area, work in Belfast, they visit Belfast but all too few people choose to live in Belfast. That is something that we need to try and revert.

Michael has talked about competitiveness, where Belfast currently sits in the competitive league tables. Belfast has to become a far more competitive place and one of the things I think that Michael has mentioned which I think we really ought to take away with us today, is how we work with the city. How we develop this city and how we manage the city are all part and parcel of how we make it competitive. We need a belief and confidence in Belfast.

I was working at the time when we started the work here in Belfast. It was [Imagine Belfast's European] City of Culture bid. And I was also working at the same time in Bradford. The truth of the matter is that I don't think Belfast really believed it could win it. That is in my view one of the reasons why Belfast fell at the first hurdle.

Unfortunately for poor old Bradford, who were absolutely convinced they were going to become city of culture; they unfortunately didn't make it. But the difference was, when I was in Bradford, they really did believe. They had a confidence about themselves despite their big neighbour, Leeds just up the road. We need to put Belfast back on the map. In terms of our own confidence in the city.

Part of that is also about bringing all sections of the community together in the city. We can't ignore the fact that in many regards this is still a divided community; a divided city. The Master-plan can't solve all of those problems. We would be as pious to suggest that but what it can do is show a way ahead where inclusiveness has to be a bedrock of the solutions for the generation of the city.

We need to grasp the opportunity and I think Michael was suggesting that Belfast, a bit like Liverpool is on that. in my view it is a city which has started to turn the corner. And there is a fantastic opportunity; there is a goal there for Belfast to achieve. And I really do believe this conference is a kick-start for us realising that opportunity. Part of that is the about the external image of Belfast.

People have talked already about how we are perceived by the outside world. I think many people come to Belfast and are pleasantly surprised that it is not a Beirut; that it is not the place that is ridden by conflict; that there are neutral parts of this city; that, actually, it is a very friendly place.

It's also a place that all too often [has] its external image destroyed by the things that happen through the media. What we have to reinforce are the positive images of this city and lastly a point that has been touched on - fulfilling its regional role. I think this is absolutely core to our understanding of the role of Belfast in Northern Ireland. It is the economic engine. But all too often we are too flippant on this. We make the noises about it, but we actually don't fully believe it. And to some extend that is because Belfast is not fully fulfilling that particular role.

Underpinning our approach to the Master-plan (and I don't want to teach my granny to suck eggs here - this is basically a first year planning regeneration stuff here). Basically our role was to look at a holistic approach, a comprehensive approach.

Yes, land-use and environmental issues were part of what we were meant to be looking at, but we were looking at what we described as the quality of life agenda. Improving the quality of life of people who live here and work here. So as such, we had to look at the economy, social circumstance and cultural diversity. All of that in the mix is part of what we described as our quality of life approach.

Again, emerging from some of the early understandings of what was going on in Belfast, it became clear to us that there were a number of central principles that were going to permeate through the strategy and the spatial plan.

Michael has made it very clear about the need, I think the phrase he used was "size is important. Big is good". Belfast continues to lose population; we have to increase the population of the city. It's as simple as that. There are means and methods of actually doing it and, in fact, the turn around has already happened in many UK cities.

We [in Belfast] need to strengthen the competitiveness and attractiveness of Belfast city centre. But importantly we need to focus on the neighbourhoods [as well]. Sometimes we only worry about those things that are neutral, that are easier to deal with - that are more presentational. But actually the vast majority of people in this city don't live in the city centre. Their quality of life is determined by where they live and that is in the neighbourhoods of the city. That's where we need to have a dual approach of looking at the economic engine of this city and ultimately the neighbourhoods were people are most affected by what goes on. We need to be promoting a mixed sustainable economy.

We also need to be empowering Belfast City Council as the civic leaders in Belfast - to work in partnership with other agencies [and] departments in the city. We need to change this cultural mindset to 'Belfast is Best' or if I can put it another way. 'Belfast is Back'.

[T]hat is the mindset we need to take away from here. At a more technical level we need to be promoting very simple things that make this an attractive place to live and work such as a responsive, multi-modal transport system. We are way behind on this. We need to be thinking more carefully about our natural and built heritage and protecting that and enhancing that.

What I want to do is basically look at two key aspects of the plan. One is the overarching strategy for the Master-plan and secondly is how we then translated that into a spatial dimension. I'm thinking in terms of the geography of the city. How things might happen and where they might happen. But essentially picking up on some of the words of previous speakers, successful regions have successful core cities. This actually comes from the core city project. It's a simple recognition, [that] for Northern Ireland to be successful we need a successful Belfast. Northern Ireland will continue to be the poor cousin of the UK for as long as Belfast under-performs. That's how important Belfast is to Northern Ireland. In order to achieve that success for the city we set out five basic principles or strands to our strategy. Growing the city, developing the city centre, developing new industries, developing land for employment and redefining city governance. I'll very quickly take you through each of these. Growing the city has been touched on previously. We are losing population. The actual figures here really don't matter. The principle of raising the population from 277,000 to 400,000 isn't exactly in itself the most important thing. The most important thing is that we set ourselves a vision, a target, a modus operandi which is about actually bringing people back to Belfast. That we are looking to increasing the population, year on year, decade on decade. We want to be promoting a sustainable balanced compact and dense model i.e. making more of the city asset, much more of the infrastructure. It is in the end of the day common sense. For too long we have had practices of urban sprawl. In fact to some extent one might argue that that still continues. What we need to be looking out at are planning models for Belfast which promote density, quality and a more compact city. And I think we want to be bringing back people to the city. We are looking at bringing people back to the city centre. Now this I know. Still people don't believe and find credible. But they said that back ten or fifteen years ago. In Manchester, Newcastle, Leeds. No one believed that apartment living in Manchester would ever happen. It is now big business. It's where people want to be. Make it attractive, people will go there.

Developing the city centre. Firstly I think it is very important in Belfast is a window on Northern Ireland. The city centre is, in many respects, what most people will see as the window on Belfast and [is] thus a window on the province. We need to be promoting, not just the leisure and the retailing in the city centre, but we need to be introducing knowledge-based and cultural industries into city centre locations; and thereby adapting the traditional role of our city centre.

We need to provide an offer which is about quality and which is competitive. It has been suggested that the scheme for Victoria Square is welcomed and I would actually go along with that. In terms of the retail that would certainly offer the city a great deal.

My word of caution, or scepticism, is that I was actually involved with the Belfast Regeneration Office over five year ago looking at a variety of schemes across the city centre in various locations. It has taken that long for us to get to just where we are now. In many situations and in many other places, that is just simply not acceptable. We need to be a city that is ready to do business. And we need to be able to turn around schemes such as Victoria Square much more quickly. And with a much more welcoming approach than we have previously shown.

We need to be promoting mixed uses and by that I'm also talking about bringing people into the city centre to live. And possibly one of the suggestions that we put forward is promoting business improvement districts which are being piloted in other cities in the UK and have also been very successful in the United States.

It's been referred to again this morning - developing new industries; new types of industries. Building on the opportunities that knowledge-based industries can bring to the city [and] increasing the contribution that cultural and creative industries can make to the city [which are] currently only actually making a contribution of about 4% to the local economy.

We also want to be looking at locating new industries in what we describe as the city centre corridor - [a term] which will come self-evident in a minute when I come to that.

Lastly, and this is what I mean by being here today is so important, we need to be supporting our third-level education providers. And this Science Park is an exemplar of the kind of partnership approach between the educational and commercial sector.

We need to be developing land for employment. [C]urrently in the city we have a distinct lack of suitably packaged land for indigenous industries. It was suggested earlier and I totally agree Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) is very much on the wane. We are looking at providing facilities for our indigenous companies and currently in Belfast it is fair to say there is a lack of well packaged land available.

We need to be providing employment zones around the city centre. We also need to be promoting physical regeneration along those ulterior routes which have seen a decline in the last ten or twenty years. And creating neutral workspaces linking the city centre with what we described as the middle city.

And last and by no means least, in the five elements of the strategy is what we described as redefining city governance. I think Michael very boldly suggested that we don't run this place terribly well and that's for a number of reasons. In our looking at Belfast and it was an intrinsic part of our brief to do so, we found there is a lot of duplication of functions and responsibilities, which essentially means what we end up with is our resources are spread thinly across the ground. We would suggest that there is some wasteful spending of regeneration funding or funds on competing overhead structures in the city.

It actually costs a lot of money to set up partnership after partnership after agency after quango, after quango. And that money could be better spent being marshalled and focused on where it is really going to make a difference.

We actually undertook a very interesting exercise, it wasn't scientific and we don't claim it to be, but we try to get a better sense of how much money is actually being spent in this city on regeneration at the present time and compared that to several other core cities.

[It is ] very difficult to get an exact comparison because the financial regimes and fiscal regimes are quite different but what we can say is that Belfast is not actually short of money. Belfast has, per head of the population, probably in some instances three and possibly four times more money being ploughed into the city than places such as Leeds or Sheffield or Manchester, or Nottingham or Newcastle.

That's a hell of a lot of money. And what are we getting from it?

What outputs are we seeing and what outcomes are we achieving? I'm not saying that things have not been achieved, but with that level of spending surely we should be seeing some better results?

Part of that I would suggest is a lack of a single point of accountability. This comes back to points that have already been raised. [In the normal circumstances] Belfast City Council would be the civic leader to whom people go to first and foremost. We don't live in a normal society from that point of view. That situation quite frankly needs to be normalised.

We need to see change in the local government dynamic [and] the relationship between local and central government. These things are being dealt with; the public administration review is underway and, I believe, reporting later this year. These things will ultimately make a huge difference to whether or not we can actually implement a Master-plan of the type that we have been discussing.

I think the other aspect of this is actually driving forward with a shared vision and a conviction. If I could just say one thing about that today. All too often we come to conferences like this and we can all sign up to the principles. We are all going in the right place. But we all go away and the conviction and the commitment seems to disappear with us. And ultimately, as Michael said, it is down to you. It's not going to be down us as consultants or to Belfast City Council. It is going to be you in this room and the commitment and conviction you show beyond this conference is absolutely crucial to that.

That's the overall strategy. What I want to just bring you up to speed on now is some of the thoughts that we had in terms of the spatial understanding of the city. How do we start to translate some of those issues, some of that strategy, into a more geographical understanding of Belfast?

One thing I would say is that it's a big document that we have produced and there is an awful lot in it and there is an awful lot of detail so what I am basically giving you this morning is a very broad overview. I do understand that you have a summary of the document in your pack which will actually have a lot more detail in terms of what I have been saying this morning, particularly in relation to the spatial Master-plan.

We started to think in terms of well, how is Belfast structured? What makes us Belfast? What makes up the city? And essential we started to come up with what we described as the 'city centre corridor' or the 'central corridor'. It is not just about the city centre. If we become total preoccupied with the city centre we actually lose other opportunities. So the economic dynamic of the city is an area that really goes from the Queen's University through the city centre to beyond where we are today. The [important] interrelationship with the economic corridor, the economic dynamic and the neighbourhoods. This is one of the big opportunities for Belfast and that opportunity must be grasped.

We need to ensure accessibility to opportunity and create direct action within those neighbourhoods. [The] city centre corridor focus is about recognising Belfast as the regional capital. That is where we should be looking to focus investment. Not just for the good of Belfast but for the good of Northern Ireland. [The] city centre corridor is that area that links the university, the harbour lands and the city centre in the middle. It is the dynamic economic space within Belfast. I mentioned earlier about making more of the city asset. The dual strategy. Compact city development which I referred to earlier on. Combined with neighbourhood regeneration.

Linking the central corridor to the neighbourhoods is the crucial element. There are basically five core elements or themes to the spatial plan itself.

Energising that core that I referred to earlier on.

Connecting to what we describe as the middle city, which sits around that core - essentially [where] the city starts to fracture.

Promoting neighbourhood renewal within those places that are most directly affecting the quality of people's lives.

Realising the environmental assets of the city and importantly, enhancing the physical presentation of Belfast.

I won't spend long on these as I have already touched on many of these themes already but essentially it is recognising that that economic spine. That central core is where we should be looking at investing in the future - to energise that core and to look at investment beyond the city centre - in the university district and in the harbour area. Connecting the middle city which I described as being that part of the city that lies around the city centre and around the core. Really [it is] where the city starts to fracture and fall apart. It actually almost become a physical barrier to the inclusion of those communities that sit around the central core and one of the things that we promote in the Master-plan document is the means of how we would actually go about doing that.

We need direct action in the neighbourhoods. We set out five city sector neighbourhood areas based on those sectors that are already recognised across the city. We set up concept plans in the Master-plan of how those places can be developed economically, socially and physically.

We often don't fully appreciate what we have here in Belfast. We have fantastic natural assets and we also have some marvellous built heritage. We need to make much more of those natural assets and we need to be promoting urban quality.

Not to offend too many people in the room, but I would have to say that I have not seen a world class building, built in Belfast probably since City Hall. There is nothing going up in the city which makes me sit up and think to myself, this is a city that is proud of itself. This is a city that cares about itself. This is a city that want to present the very best in design and I think that is a crucial issue if we are really going to be confident about the future.

I'm not blaming any individual, any individual disciplines. I am simply saying that this has been the [case] for this city and we can look around the country at some of those cities that have been successful in dong this and have got there act together and put urban quality high on their agendas.

What about a way forward?

Some of these actions that we set out here have already begun and, indeed, promoting a debate with stakeholders is essentially what this conference is actually about.

This is number one action.

And we are doing it and we are hopefully going to get to a point by the end of today where we can at least come away with some kind of notion that we may be going collectively in the right direction. We need to be building that consensus ultimately on a shared single strategy.

I think it is very important that when investors come to Belfast we are all singing from the same hymn sheet, that we are all moving in the same direction. That's how it happens everywhere else in the UK [s] why does it not happen here in Belfast?

I would also suggest that Belfast City Council has to get its own house in order. It has to develop its own capacity to deliver. It has to look internally at how it operates and [that] it is operating in a way that is consistent now with the objectives of the Master-plan.

We have put forward the notion, in terms of trying to promote urban quality and high standards of design in the city, [of] developing [an] office of the city architect. It could be [placed ] in the City Council or it could be a development control function within DOE.

In fact the city used to have a city architect. What I would suggest however, [is that] this is not about controlling development. This is [about] promoting high standards of development and high standards of design. Many cities in Europe have actually done this and it has worked very successful.

One of the most successful that I am aware of is in Copenhagen where they have had a city architect working with a city engineer on not only the design of buildings but also the public realm and public realm strategy for the last thirty years.

I would suggest we might even start to look at initiating a review of regeneration funding in light of what I was saying earlier on about the way in which we marshal and spend our funds in the city. Some might say that this is a controversial thing to say and why should the City Council be taking such a great interest in it? I think it is important for the civic leadership of this city to be saying that we want our money to be spent in the most cost-effective manner. We've suggested, [that a] regeneration loan fund [be established]. We need to make sure that Belfast City Council's economic development policies are fully aligned in terms of the Master-plan. There should be no surprises since what we are doing is building on some of the very good work that the [Council's] Development Department have already undertaken.

We need to ensure that Belfast City Council, as a civic leader, is reviewing and influencing strategies and policies through the Master-plan. It's a very important tool.

We need to be promoting the quality of life agenda through service delivery. There is the way in which councils and other agencies in the city deliver there services. These are the things that directly impact on standards of peoples lives.

And we do need to be achieving some kind of consensus and capacity building. [O]ne of the [important] points that Michael made is [that] Belfast has the opportunity, but is Belfast ready to seize the opportunity in the way in which Liverpool? I have to say I worked in Liverpool a few years ago and found it a very difficult place to work in although I think they now have got their act together. There is a consensus [in Liverpool] about where the city wants to move to. There is a shared vision for Liverpool. They were successful in the [Capital] of Culture bid. And that in itself has also helped to galvanise a confidence about the city. It began a process of building further capacity in the city.

I want to finish with just a reference to a thought for today. We have reached a moment in time when "even the stones must speak". This is actually a [quote from the] bishop in Barcelona at the turn of the last century. He was a contemporary and a confident of Antonio Gaudi, the Catalan architect who had a great influence over the design, form and shape of Barcelona. I mention this for three reasons as there are three things I take from this.

One - exemplifies the frustration I feel every time I come to Belfast. We have got to the point that even the stones must recognise, and people must listen to the stones - we need change. And [the bishop] was talking about his city at a time of great political turmoil in the early part of the last century. A lot of social upheaval, political upheaval and the way the city was developing.

And I think the other aspect of this is saying something about Barcelona. Often the references we [have about] Barcelona are [about] Barcelona today. Barcelona is one of the iconic, regeneration exemplars. Barcelona wasn't always like. Barcelona at the turn of the last century was just another post-industrial city going through much of the things that Belfast [is] going through. But what Barcelona did [was to] carr[y] out a renaissance process which date back to the early part of that last century.

I think the last thing I take from this is the timing. What essentially the Bishop of Barcelona was remarking on was the stage of his city. What we are here to do today, in the early part of the 21st century, is to examine the state of this city - a great city. Not once great city - it still is a great city.

I'm not from this place. But I have become quite passionate about what this city can achieve and I hope that today through the Belfast: State of the City conference and the discussions I'm sure will ensue later on about the Master-plan, that we can go someway to realising the opportunity that is clearly there for Belfast. Thank you very much.

(Applause)