Andrew

I am forever bemused at the fairy-land image people have about apartment developments. I live in a city centre apartment block and it's a far cry from the much abused 'luxury' term. This building is badly and cheaply put together - fittings in the apartments are poorly installed, the top floor is incomplete, parts of the basement are still unpainted, the lift and garage door repeatedly break down. There is damp in my bathroom. Numerous flats in the building are suffering from repeating electricity and gas problems - the smell of gas often drifts about outside flats. We have suffered numerous incidents of crime both outside and inside the building. Cars are regularly broken into outside, even during the day; intruders have attempted to steal cars from inside the secured car park; bikes and other property have been stolen from the garage. The building is also badly looked after - it isn't cleaned properly and many of the tenants don't care much about it. Cigarette butts and other rubbish are left everywhere. Someone threw up in the lift last week and just left it there. The building management company had to give back art works, sculptures and furniture which were used in the lobby because it wasn't actually paid for. The list goes on and this is a new building with a high price tag.

The cost of living in this country is going up and up with no signs of stopping. House prices are up, apartment prices are up, the cost of renting is up. But salaries aren't, well paid jobs are few and far between, and it seems the recent procession of redundancies isn't ceasing. Who can afford these places? What will happen when prices go up and up? Who will be able to afford to buy or rent?

Encouraging people to live in the centre of town benefits society as a whole - local jobs, quality of life, crime, the environment, health...are all affected by it. The estate agents and property developers are in control - they build the buildings, set the price to buy or rent. The consumer loses out. The government needs to control this area before it gets out of hand. Owning quality, affordable housing is a basic human right and it should be treated like one.

Trevor Girvan, Belfast

I am a Belfast resident and feel strongly about the ugly impact of mass on-street car parking in conservation areas of Belfast. Lines of cars parked bumper-to-bumper are a blot on the landscape of otherwise beautiful ancient buildings e.g. Victorian terraced houses.

Around Queens University (University Road, Stranmillis Road and lower Malone Road) where I live and work there is a serious lack of off-street parking for residents and those with mobility access who require car transport.

QUB had, at one point, plans for an underground car park on the Lanyon 2 site. I very much support the development of underground parking for this area as (apart from entry and exit points) there is no visual impact on the surface. Indeed, I feel that the provision of off-street (and non-surface) parking provision (either underground or concealed in the centre of an apartment block) should be a condition of planning permission for any new or re-developments.

What is the current law regarding developers' obligations on off-street parking provision?

One aspect of my vision of the long term future for Belfast would be the end of on-street parking, where streets look just as they were before the mass influx of cars.

I can identify other benefits of a policy of phasing out on street parking:-

• Reduced congestion
• Reduced pollution
• Reduced crime risk
• Increased safety

It seems to me that on-street parking is permitted as a means of traffic-calming. However, in two-way roads, this often results in:- single filing of traffic flow, start-stop driving leading to increased noise (from engine revving) and atmospheric pollution (less pollution per vehicle results from free-flowing traffic). In addition, driver stress and the probability of accidents is increased, compared to a slow free flow.

Even on a one-way street, there is:-

• the risk of pedestrians (esp.. children) running out from between parked cars

• the risk of passengers opening car doors into oncoming traffic; perhaps deliberately as a result of frustration over delay caused by an endless stream of traffic

• a much higher risk of vehicles being stolen and used for "joyriding" than if they were in a secure (gates & CCTV) car park

• a hiding place (between or behind vehicles) for criminals (e.g. burglars) about to carry out an act of crime

Residential traffic calming could be better done by schemes that force a slow constant speed through an area rather than start-stop driving e.g. gentle ramps, narrowings on either side of a traffic island, NOT single-filing narrowings.

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