LQ BID Publishes Annual General Report 2020-24

We am delighted to enclose below a button to download Linen Quarter BID’s 2023-2024 annual update. 

Our second-year term started in February 2023 and within this short window we have:  

• Doubled our Clean Team commitment to six days per week and delivered our enhanced safety initiatives through our dedicated PSNI officer, installation of additional CCTV, and an enhanced focus on reducing violence against women & girls. 

• Delivered a £128k renewal of Bankmore Square, with support from the Department for Communities, transforming it from an anti-social behaviour hotspot to a pleasant public park. 

• Invested £250,000, alongside funders from Belfast City Council and the Department for Communities, to regenerate southern Great Victoria Street with building vinyls, street art, planting, and deep cleans. This is the first step in a strategy to deliver long term capital investment to restore the street after 20 years of dereliction and decline. 

• Organized a comprehensive series of events throughout the year, from exclusive member social events to providing a platform for the latest in thought-leadership, including the Belfast Summit with Professor Carlos Moreno, the globally renowned creator of the 15-minute city. 

• Launched our healthy district initiative, exclusively for member employees, including free gym classes, five a side football, an inter-company Pétanque tournament, and a comprehensive health week with almost eighty different events. 

• Recruited Belfast’s first City Centre Night Czar, Michael Stewart, in conjunction with Belfast One BID and Cathedral Quarter BID. 

In total we have already delivered twenty-two of the fifty commitments we made in our five-year business plan, with a further fifteen projects underway. There is a short update on every single project included in the attached report. 

Over the next year we aim to build on these achievements with a comprehensive summer programme at Bankmore Square, delivery of the largest street art installation on the island of Ireland, and a significant six figure investment to enhance the Gasworks with additional landscaping and employee focused social space. We will also burnish our commitment to make the Linen Quarter a more sustainable district through delivery of the three-day RE[act] Festival in November, which sits alongside a further ten green project and social capital initiatives. 

Linen Quarter BID is here to support our members, and to enhance the experience for all who work, live in, or visit our district. For those who already engage with us we would like to thank you for your partnership and support. For those who are yet to discover our services, please reach out to us on the back of this report, and we would be delighted to discuss how we can help.