1. Introduction
Between 19 November 2024 and 9 March 2025, Belfast City Council carried out a 16-week public consultation on Belfast Stories, a planned new visitor attraction due to open in the city centre in 2030, and its accompanying equality impact assessment (EQIA).
At this stage of the development of Belfast Stories, known as RIBA stage 2, initial architectural and curatorial concepts have been developed. These were presented during the public consultation, and consultees were invited to comment.
The draft EQIA report was available on Belfast City Council’s Your Say consultation website. This included a survey inviting feedback on the Belfast Stories proposal and draft EQIA. The council’s Equality Scheme consultees (appendix 1) were notified of the draft EQIA and invited to comment. Over 2,500 consultation documents were distributed across the city, and there were also 63 consultation workshops and meetings which engaged over 838 participants across a range of stakeholder groups (appendix 2).
This EQIA final decision report sets out:
- the initial findings from the draft EQIA report
- the results of the consultation process
- conclusions
- recommendations for monitoring any adverse impacts
