Walking around Belfast city centre in the evening, and into the night, I’m sure you’ll have noticed just how much of a ghost town large parts of it are. There are busy areas like the Cathedral Quarter, but these are normally separated by craic deserts, where people are only found travelling through to another hot spot. Think about Donegall Place – one of the main streets in Belfast is devoid of life by the early evening.

The prevalence of retail and offices works fine during the day, but after they close, there isn’t much else to make people want to spend time in large swathes of the city centre, and there doesn’t seem to be any real joined-up thinking in Belfast about the night time economy. This is highlighted by the recent Belfast Agenda dedicating almost no space to it, the Draft Belfast Cultural Strategy making one mention of the night time economy, and the recent Belfast Region City Deal having only a mention of education for the hospitality industry.

Like many things in Northern Ireland, the night time economy in Belfast thrives, not because of the approach by government, but in spite of it. There is a thriving gig scene and a thriving club scene with many small promoters. There is the highly regarded and extremely successful AVA (Audio Visual Arts) Festival, focused particularly on the exploding local electronic music scene. There are many arts events like Late Night Art, the widely attended Culture Night, and, of course, the many pubs and restaurants in the city. These exist in cultural pockets and the joined-up, long-term thinking that a plan would bring to link these together isn’t happening and has been largely ignored by the plans mentioned above.

A Manifesto for the Night Time Economy was produced in 2016 (not in Belfast) which does an excellent job of highlighting the different aspects that affect a night time economy: planning, licensing, etc. This manifesto outlines 12 pledges to improve the night time economy. Reading this short document, anyone who has spent time in Belfast at night will be struck with how everything laid out here makes sense. It starts to make you think more about what more could be done to improve this aspect of city life in Belfast.

I’d recommend having a look at it yourself, but, to boil it down, it is largely focused on protecting the night time economy that we currently have and providing an environment in which it can thrive and develop further. There are several of the points raised in this manifesto that strike me as being key for Belfast moving forward. Something needs to change.

Licensing

Ah yes, that old chestnut. Licensing is widely recognised as being a huge problem in Northern Ireland, with very restrictive rules compared with many other European cities. Unless there is reform to the licensing laws here, the ability of the night time economy to develop further will be difficult. Here, the focus should be on the granting of new licenses, especially to the multitude of craft beer breweries and distilleries opening, and addressingthe changing of closing times. There is legislation in ‘dormant Stormont’ that was proposed in 2016, which would see some welcome changes made, but not what many would be hoping for. Hospitality Ulster, a body representing some of the hospitality sector, has provided feedback on this, but, again, they do not make mention of reform of the awarding of licenses themselves.

Planning

Another key area is that of planning. This has come into the spotlight in Belfast more recently with the proposed Tribeca Development in the Cathedral Quarter and the reaction after its announcement. Key to this planning is simply asking, “What type of place do we want this place to become?” This requires long-term thinking. Do we want to abandon what makes Belfast feel like Belfast, or do we want to retain these things and protect them from development? In cities everywhere, the priority is often given to developers and their new developments, rather than to the pre-existing cultural assets like pubs, clubs, venues and, importantly, the built environment. These are often forced to close, severely change how they operate or face disappearing altogether, often due to noise complaints from new residents.

Something to protect these cultural and community assets is essentially along the lines of, “I was here first.” This would put the onus on both the developers to negate this and on the resident/tenant to realise the reality of, for example, living beside a club. Having a plan for how the city would want the night time economy to spread from the hotspots to more areas would help with the deserted feeling of the city centre and help to hold on to people later intothe night. Future city centre residential development comes into this, too. If more people lived in the centre, there would be more people around. For example, the re-emerging discussions about the pedestrianisation of Donegall Place would give a space for people and changes of surrounding units could result in a new leisure and hospitality spot right in the middle of the city.

Transport

Public transport ends for those leaving Belfast city centre at around 23:30 – at the latest. For people travelling by train from Ballymena for a night out, the last train leaves from Great Victoria Street Station at 22:40, with the equivalent bus service leaving a few minutes before this from the Europa Bus Centre. Even those travelling on the new Glider from the city centre have a cut off time of around 23:30, with other bus services further out of Belfast offering even worse final departure times.

So, let’s say you come to the city centre to go for a gig, or to go to the cinema, or to go to the theatre. You have travelled from Coleraine. Your last train home will be 22:40 from Great Victoria Street, meaning you might have to duck out of whatever you have come for early, miss the post event drink and chat or, even worse, miss your final train and have to fork out for a taxi fare home, which in many cases is not an option. A hotel for the night? Again, not an option for most people. So what is the other option – not go out at all? And it’s not just people getting in and out of the city for a night out. What about everyone working to service this late night economy? Many have little option other than to walk, cycle or pay for taxis home.

Granted, Belfast has much better transport infrastructure than most of the rest of Northern Ireland, and there have been big improvements in recent years. Translink’s ‘midnight’ services put on over the Christmas period shows what is possible – and that plenty of demand exists. Why not build on this success throughout the rest of the year?

Vision

Encompassing all of the above is the long-term vision that the city has for the night time economy and the strategy it can use to further develop this. Do we want a vibrant city that operates all day rather than one that largely closes at night? Do we want to lose cultural and community assets that are often the things that make cities attractive places to work, live and visit in the first place? How do we effectively get this vision? Maybe the city’s residents could be involved in something like a citizens’ assembly to discuss possible changes to all the areas listed above, and to help set the priorities. Involving citizens would be key to preventing this from being dominated by the politicians and certain vested interests. This would make people to feel like they have a stake in it.

Representation

To have someone who represents the night time economy and the vision set out for this at council level would be extremely helpful. There are examples of this popping up in cities across Europe and the US in many different forms of ‘night mayors’, with the first of these in Amsterdam having successfully elected two, so far. This person, or people, would serve as a bridge between the industry, local government, organisations and all relevant actors. Key to this position would be building relationships with all those involved in this area and not just the large hospitality groupings. Having a dedicated post that represents the interests of the night time economy would allow them to focus solely on this specific area, to pursue whatever strategy is decided upon, and to highlight further areas of focus. This would also allow a position to be accountable, helping to minimise the risk of progress getting lost across a large number of different departments, committees, government organisations and businesses.

Thinking ahead

To improve the city centre in the evening, Belfast needs to consider the night time economy in its vision for the city moving forward and pursue a holistic approach to this. The areas I’ve highlighted above are the big hitters, but there will inevitably be many more on top of these. Thinking about the night time economy in this way helps to make you realise the problems that do exist, makes you consider what type of city we see Belfast becoming and how this could be achieved.

Belfast already has a fair bit to offer the people here and those visiting – and it’s important to remember how far this city has come over the last two decades. There are certainly some exciting initiatives currently underway, like the Linen Quarter Business Improvement District (BID). Drawing on the unique history of the area, it’s focused precisely on the intersection of business and pleasure, and regenerating an environment to support them both. Maybe its work so far in this area can help lay the foundations for a broader focus on the night time economy across the city centre.

There is always room for improvement. It’s time to build on the demand and promising work that already exists, stepping up our collective ambitions. With political will, creativity and imaginative ideas, Belfast can seize the night.