Maze site stadium plans under fire

Northern Ireland Secretary Paul Murphy will today face criticism of British government plans to locate a sports stadium at the site of the Maze Prison: which housed republican and loyalist prisoners.

Belfast city councillors were expected to criticise the handling by ministers of a consultation process on the site of a new stadium for the North, insisting sites other than the Maze Prison were not properly considered.

Politicians in the city had hoped that a site in East Belfast’s Titanic Quarter would have still been a contender.

However, last week it emerged that the British government was planning a £1bn (€1.4bn) development which included the stadium on top of the former prison which housed the infamous H-Block, where 10 republican prisoners died in a hunger striker in 1981.

It is envisaged that the 30,000-seat arena will play host to international soccer games, rugby and Gaelic games, as well as rock concerts.

It is also proposed that there will be an office, hotel and leisure village, an industrial estate, an international conflict transformation centre and a rural excellence and equestrian zone with showgrounds and exhibition facilities.

A council source said: “There is a feeling that the case for Titanic Quarter wasn’t properly listened to, even though the Maze Prison was the favourite.

“If you look at other cities in the UK, the trend is for stadiums to be built in city centres.

“There is not doubt that it would have made a lot of economic sense to have located it in the city, especially given all the hotels that have begun to spring up.

“There is a ready-made tourist infrastructure in place in Belfast; whereas at the Maze the government is going to have to start from scratch in what is essentially a rural area.”

Mr Murphy is also expected to face questions from councillors at a special meeting on the British government’s plan to reduce the number of local councils in Northern Ireland as part of its review of public administration.

Unionists expressed concern that the number of councils would be reduced to seven, with nationalists controlling the majority of them.

The Northern Ireland Secretary is also due to face questions on the form of the rates system and border charges.

City councillors were also expected to raise concerns about out-of-town shopping developments, warning about their impact on trade in Belfast city centre.