Tony Dorrian, the Workers Party representative for South Belfast, has recently spoken out on the continued attempts of overdevelopment surrounding the Market area, a small working-class community in the inner city. The Market area has a strong community ethos with a very active community development association, through the Market Development Association (MDA).

Tony said there have been a number of reports and surveys published by the MDA with a community led survey first being published in 2018 providing the views of the community on six specific human rights indicators, overdevelopment, road safety, housing, health, education, and employment. Ninety-four per cent of those surveyed at the time felt that commercial overdevelopment posed a threat to the future of the Market. A key example of the community opposition was the Sunshine not Skyscrapers campaign which protested the proposed building of a 14-storey skyscraper next to multiple family homes within the heart of the community.

The surveys and reports have been supported by the MDA’s partners at Queens Communities and Place (QCAP), who have since built community projects off the previous survey results.

However, TransLink, which is a public corporation, has published plans to build a multistorey office block building on the Lanyon Place side of Lanyon Place Train Station. This proposal comes at a time when there are currently multiple buildings in the surrounding areas of both Lanyon Place and the Gasworks site that lay empty and some that have never been used at all. The problem of vacant business properties exists across the city. According to a BBC report the Department of Finance determined that of the 5,576 non-domestic properties within the Belfast city boundary, 1,914 were vacant on 31 October 2024. Between 2023 and 2024 the number of vacant business buildings in Belfast grew by 54. In other words, thirty four percent of non-domestic buildings in Belfast are vacant, and Translink wants to build more.

Tony stated that this is a complete ‘slap in the face’, to the wishes of local residents and community activists alike. Furthermore, this proposal comes at a time when many companies provide working from home options. Tony questions the need for this commercial development and believes this would have a detrimental impact on not only the Market, but also Donegal Pass, and Ormeau Road communities.