CQ BID Pledge A Greener, Cleaner Cathedral Quarter By 2026 With Help From Streetdock Initiative

The Cathedral Quarter Business Improvement District (BID) has shown commitment to its cleaner, greener goals by facilitating key conversations between sustainable businesses and the wider community.

One such business the BID is facilitating conversations with is streetdock, a newly launched infrastructure system of micro-hubs that supports and scales the use of low impact vehicles like e-cargo bikes for logistics, including light commercial and e-commerce cargo. 

Streetdock is a zero-emissions delivery service by local entrepreneurs Ian Richardson and David Kane. Damien Corr manager of the Cathedral Quarter BID said he’s delighted to be working with local businesses and streetdock to help achieve an environmentally friendlier city centre for all by 2026.

“Under the Safer, Cleaner, Greener strand of the Cathedral Quarter Business plan for the next five years, the CQ BID has been facilitating activity around the pedestrianisation in this part of the city” said Damien.

“This plan was endorsed by 86% of the ballot in the recent renewal election and the BID will spend the next 5 years working in partnership to deliver it.

“The popular Cathedral Quarter is a conservation area and over the past year, in partnership with Business and Statutory agencies has seen more care taken towards protecting its environment through the pedestrianisation (on a pilot basis) of Union St.

“Over the last year we have facilitated, in partnership with Business and Statutory agencies, the pedestrianisation (on a pilot basis) of Union St which has already led to the creation of new business and a general improvement to the general amenity of the area. 

“In the new year we will be working along the same basis to explore how we might reduce traffic in Hill St. and Gordon St” added Damien.

A recent survey looking at the condition of the historic Cathedral Quarter Cobbles pointed to the severe neglect and damage that they have endured over the years.

The BID manager welcomed the introduction of eCargo bikes which would lessen the flow of traffic delivering necessary goods to businesses around the area.

“It is a fair assumption that heavy delivery vehicles will have contributed to the cobble damage so we were very excited to learn about the streetdock project as it is obviously one of the solutions to this issue” he said, adding: “The BID is very happy to liaise between the Company and businesses where needed.

“We are hopeful that the versatility of streetdock will be of interest to Business and that the initiative will act as catalyst for further sustainable development in the Cathedral Quarter and across the city.”

Funding for the new streetdock initiative which launched earlier this month, comes from the Department for Infrastructure’s Sustainable and Active Travel elements of the Department for Communities’ Covid-19 Revitalisation Programme Fund, with Belfast City Council supporting project delivery.

The pilot project, which will operate for one year, offers a sustainable delivery solution for city centre-based business-to-business deliveries.

Ian Richardson co-founder of streetdock said: “Cities are badly impacted by our overuse of fossil fuel vehicles and we need to reverse the dominance of vehicles over people.

“We are passionate about playing a role in helping cities adapt and becoming places that are safe, attractive and economically vibrant and we want to help Belfast thrive by making it a place people want to be in, not drive through.

“Micromobility is being experimented with in many cities around the world and and cycling infrastructure is key and fundamental to safer healthier communities.

“Green infrastructure rather than big engineered solutions are needed to improve resilience and biodiversity, where we work with nature rather than concreting over everything”. 

To register your interest in the streetdock initiative go to streetdock.com.

For more information about the Cathedral Quarter BID go to cathedralquarter.com