Have you heard of the urban greenway in East Belfast?

When it comes to Belfast, many will have heard of the Titanic museum, the Game of Thrones studio, and the fascinating Black Cab Tours, but what about the Connswater Community Greenway?

Offering miles of continuous cycle routes, weaving from wildlife corridors to the heart of the city's industrial past, there are now a range of bike tours on offer to bring visitors through lesser known spots.

The team behind the unique space is EastSide Greenways, a regeneration charity founded by EastSide Partnership, all under the management of Jacqueline O'Hagan.

"We are a regeneration charity and we've based here since 1997, I think, with the remit to regenerate East Belfast to make it better for the people that live and work here," she explains.

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At its core, the purpose of the greenway is to create new opportunities for business and tourism as well as promote wellbeing through active engagement with locals - all of which kicked off in 2005 when the group availed of a funding opportunity through the UK's National Lottery.

"They gave us £23 million," she says, still sounding a little surprised. "We're a small organisation - we're bigger now and there's only 18 of us!"

With a huge project ahead of them, the small but mighty team enlisted the support of Belfast City Council, the Department for Infrastructure, and the Department of Communities - to name but a few - and ultimately landed themselves with a total of £40 million to create the greenway.

Then they had to decide what to do with it.

"What we brought to the table was that community engagement model," Jacqueline explains.

"Throughout the process, our residents and our stakeholders were involved with our funding applications; they were involved in the construction, the design...

"Some of the staff were in people's houses at times, and we were holding regular stakeholder sessions along the route to tackle some tough issues.

"We've won awards for the greenway, and most of the awards have been for that engagement model."

In 2017, 16 kilometres of off-road cycle paths opened up to the public, offering new and exciting pathways to public parks and spaces in East Belfast, as well as beautiful walkways along three rivers.

"It starts in the Titanic Quarter, in a park there, and then runs right through urban areas as well as cutting through some of those very pristine parks," she says. "We wanted to ensure that this would allow people living in our most urban areas to be able to access green spaces."

"We've created, I think, 20 bridges and crossing across the whole route," she adds, noting that, aside from tourism opportunities, this initiative allows local communities to connect with one another.

A wildlife corridor was created to encourage sustainable spaces for native wildlife - leading to some exciting sightings of the Waxwing bird - while an economic boost was found along areas with higher foot traffic.

"It has become a real catalyst for economic regeneration," she insists. "We've seen café and breweries pop up along the greenway."

"We're seeing this place become a real hub for people to visit," she adds, highlighting the creation of C.S. Lewis Square in 2016 - a public space named after the Chronicles of Narnia creator who was born in the area.

"We've got a giant Aslan statue, the Beavers, Mr Tumnus, the White Witch," she lists, "and we have little trails that have basically created a mini-Narnia in this thriving public space."

Since its completion, EastSide Greenways have entered into a partnership with Belfast City Council to co-manage the site.

While the council looks after the hard structure, Jacqueline and her team are put to work within the community, working with businesses and residents to find out how they can best be served.

"We want to give people ownership of the space," she insists. "It is constantly used, it's well thought of, it's loved, and people feel really connected to it."

"So, the next stage is visitors," she smiles. "We want to open doors to people who want to come in."

"It would be lovely to get more residents from Northern Ireland and Ireland across," she continues. "I think that's the first market we want to attract.

"Obviously, everyone is welcome, and international visitors would be great, but it would be lovely to see some people from across this country - all of this country, both sides - coming to visit the greenway and seeing the uniqueness of it."

Fore more information, visit EastSideGreenways.com

Have you heard of the urban greenway in East Belfast?

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