A Newtownards community group campaigning to turn a former railway bank that has been unoccupied for 65 years into a green space say they feel "ignored" after a lack of progress.
Pamela Shaw, founder of Branch Out Community Group, said that they have been pushing to transform the Talbot Street space into a new public garden and educational space on a two and a half-acre site.
Speaking to Belfast Live, Pamela said: "I came up with the idea of it at the start of lockdown and began thinking about it in March of 2020 - you weren't allowed to go anywhere and Ards doesn't have any green spaces. There is Londonderry Park but that is more of a sports area and then the duck pond but that is basically it.
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"I had previously been a part of the Conservation Volunteers for about three years and I had done garden design so it was always my plan to try and develop community sites.
"The land that we would like has been lying unoccupied for 65 years with absolutely nothing done to it. It is an old railway bank but we don't have any railway in Ards anymore."
From March 2021, the group have been working on a small woodland plot in the same area which had been causing issues with antisocial behaviour and used it to show the potential of their future work on the Talbot Street site.
"We thought it would be a good wee pilot project so that is the site we go to with volunteers and do a bit of work. I did contact the DfI (Department for Infrastructure) for permission to go in and maintain and tidy it up and I was told that they had abandoned that site," she explained.
Branch Out Community Group then contacted Development Trusts NI (DTNI), who work to facilitate between departments in order to obtain land for community groups and charities, to express interest in both sites to redevelop.
Pamela continued: "No one else had put interest in the small woodland site because there is no planning on it as it's not that big but the Ambulance Service originally put in an expression of interest in the larger site but they pulled out.
"The next stage should be that they get a business case and a social value case off me and look at it as an actual business - we are not intending to plant a couple of trees and sing Kumbaya at the weekend, this a proposal for a social enterprise.
"They haven't requested anything from me or even spoken to me and I keep getting told to concentrate just on the smaller site but the larger site was always the project. The deadline for every interested party was July but instead of following through to the next stage and asking for more information, they continue to create new deadlines."
Pamela says that because of the extended deadlines, the DfI now have a Housing Association interested in the Talbot Street site who will be able to offer money to obtain the land that the community group cannot match.
She added: "I feel like we are being kicked out without even being given a fighting chance. I presented to Ards and North Down Borough Council who are going to act as a sponsor to us - Newtownards does not have green spaces that will work for the environment, education and mental health and we have the support in the town but we are being ignored.
"The DTNI have suggested that the Housing Association and Branch Out sit down to have a chat but we have got nothing back from it as of yet."
A DfI spokesperson said: “The Government Disposal Procedures provide a framework to facilitate community ownership of surplus public land as an option of the normal disposal process, known as Community Asset Transfers (CAT).
“As part of the disposal process, questionnaires are issued to interested parties so they may provide details on their proposed plans for the subject areas.
“The Department will shortly carry out its review of the received questionnaires and decide if any plots can be considered under CAT. All options will be given careful consideration by departmental officials in consultation with Land and Property Service and DfC, who has the lead responsibility for the implementation of CAT.”
For more information, see here.
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