2. The policy
About Belfast Stories
In December 2021, Belfast City Council announced its plans for a new visitor attraction in Belfast city centre.
Funded by the Belfast City Region Deal and Belfast City Council, Belfast Stories will open at the former Bank of Ireland buildings, 92 Royal Avenue (where North Street and Royal Avenue meet) by 2028. It aims to attract both tourists and locals while helping to regenerate the city and surrounding areas.
There are three main parts to the visitor centre: stories, screen and social.
Stories
These will be first-person accounts of the city by the people who call it home.
These stories will be discovered through an ambitious citywide story collection programme that will include:
- uncovering the stories that are already held by museums, archives, local history groups, communities and others
- collecting new stories, particularly those people and groups whose stories may not yet have been heard
The stories will be exhibited using a range of media – words, pictures, photographs, animation, film, virtual technology and so on – in 2,000m2 of exhibition space including a library of stories, a main exhibition space and temporary exhibition spaces. Visitors will be guided through the space by a trail which will end at a viewing platform on top of the building where they can reflect on the story of the whole city.
Screen
Belfast Stories film centre will house a state-of-the-art five-screen cinema (including an outdoor screen), offering, for example, premieres and new releases from around the world, film festivals and special events.
It will also contain NI’s digital screen archive, which visitors can explore, supported by a year-round programme of talks and interactive events.
The film centre will also support the local film industry with developmental space, flexible learning spaces and a story lab. There will be a particular focus on children and young people.
Social
The exhibition space and film centre will be connected by public spaces where people can meet, eat, shop and relax. These will include:
- a central open-air courtyard
- pocket squares and laneways
- roof gardens
- cafes, restaurants and bars sharing local produce and cuisine – Belfast’s “food story”
- shops selling local products
These spaces will be brought to life through a programme of events, pop-up shops and street food.
Framework for gathering stories
A draft framework for gathering stories was developed by Lord Cultural Resources in consultation with over 50 stakeholders in 2021.
The purpose of the framework is to help gather, sort and celebrate a wealth of Belfast stories without being constraining. It is essential that the framework is inclusive of different people and groups so that they will share their stories.
Stories will be told in the first person to keep their distinctive, human and relatable voice, told from a personal point of view rather than by an official or authority.
Stories can be about the past, present or future, and there are seven themes:
- Home
- Resilient
- Place
- Change
- Innovative
- Authentic
- Creative
Each theme has between 11 to 16 subthemes, but the framework is designed to be flexible. Stories may fit under more than one theme. If stories do not fit under a particular subtheme, a new one can be created.
Stories will be mostly Belfast-focused, but they will have common threads that will show how Belfast connects with global history and current affairs (such as Black Lives Matters, climate change or #MeToo).
The themes are underpinned by five principles.
- Equality and inclusiveness
- Increased accessibility and co-creation
- Pressure free
- Respect
- People centred
About the engagement process
Equality framework
Belfast Stories’ Equality Framework was developed in 2021. It recognises that the project’s vision cannot be achieved unless equality, diversity and inclusion are placed at its core and supported by co-design and an inclusive process throughout all stages of development.
It recommends that engagement be:
“an ongoing cumulative process, enabling relationships, building trust and strengthening links over time […] Residents, voluntary and community groups, specialists and concerned or interested individuals, may want to participate at a range of levels – from providing advice to co-designing the process, undertaking some aspects of the engagement to delivering projects to meet some of the outcomes.”
It also recommends that equality screening and impact assessments should be carried out at different stages and on different elements of the project.
The public consultation
The 14-week public consultation focused on:
- raising awareness of Belfast Stories so that people are excited and want to continue to be engaged in its development and
- gathering ideas and evidence to help shape the design brief to make sure that the building is welcoming and accessible and everyone can see themselves reflected in its stories
An online consultation hub was created on Belfast City Council’s Your Say platform. It included a survey inviting feedback on the Belfast Stories proposal and draft EQIA; copies of the consultation document in a range of formats including HTML, Easy Read, British Sign Language (BSL) and Irish Sign Language (ISL); and registration for workshops and public meetings. The council’s Equality Scheme consultees (appendix 1) were notified of the public consultation and draft EQIA and invited to comment. Leaflets and information were distributed across the city including pop-ups and display boards exhibited at Clifton House, Girdwood Community Hub, Lisnasharragh Leisure Centre, Crescent Arts Centre, Ulster University, the Spectrum Centre, EastSide Visitor Centre and the James Connolly Visitor Centre. A series of meetings, workshops and events were also held (see appendix 2 for participating organisations).
The equity steering group
An equity steering group was set up in August 2022. Its purpose is to:
- identify and connect to “missing voices” and groups of people most at risk of missing out
- co-design an engagement programme that will help ensure that everyone can have their stories heard and can access the building
- co-produce engagement opportunities throughout the public consultation and ongoing engagement, for example, by hosting or facilitating meetings or carrying out peer research
- check the accessibility of consultation materials
- act as a critical friend, helping to equity-proof and shape the design of the building and its experiences
It is made up of Belfast City Council staff working alongside people who are experts by experience of being less heard or listened to due to their identity or circumstance including:
- People from different faith, political and cultural backgrounds
- People from minoritised ethnic communities
- Deaf/deaf, disabled and neurodiverse people
- Older people
- Children and young people
- Women
- Carers and people with dependants
- LGBTQ+ people
The engagement plan recommends that the equity steering group should continue to run after August 2023, when it will co-design its new priorities, which might include, for example:
- building the confidence and trust of missing voices to share their stories and
- marketing and communications.
The engagement plan also recommends that the membership of the steering group may change as one of its roles will be to continually ask itself “Who else needs to be part of the discussion around this table?”
Ongoing engagement
Belfast Stories engagement plan sets out plans for ongoing engagement structured around four work strands:
- Equity. Equity recognises that not everyone starts from the same place. It gives people the different resources and opportunities they need to take part.
- Sustainability. The purpose of this strand is to make sure that Belfast Stories is green and sustainable. It will bring together environmental, tourism, culture and economic development stakeholders.
- Partnership. A stories network will be open to any organisation with an interest in Belfast Stories.
- Experiences. This strand will bring together stakeholders around the stories, screen and social elements of the concept.
The strands will come together in an integrated design steering group, which will be responsible for ensuring that the design of the building and exhibition reflects the needs and wants of its many stakeholders, while it remains authentic, relevant, inclusive and accessible for the people of Belfast.
About the equality impact assessment
Belfast City Council recognises Belfast Stories as a major development which will impact on staff, residents and other ratepayers. As a result, it could also impact on people and groups associated with the nine Section 75 equality categories.
An initial equality screening was carried out in December 2021. It recommended that an equality impact assessment (EQIA) be carried out on Belfast Stories, potentially at different stages in the project, such as concept and design stages.
The initial 14-week public consultation on the concept and draft EQIA took place between 10 August to 20 November 2022.
Belfast City Council plans to continue engagement with different people and organisations throughout its development. This includes two more planned public consultations: on the concept design and as part of planning permission.
