What do people think of new plans to charge £4 for exhibition?

Should people be charged to tour a Belfast City Hall exhibition?

On Monday, People Before Profit councillor Michael Collins proposed to drop Belfast City Council’s plan to charge people £4 to visit the venue’s ground floor exhibition, which is usually free.

In a vote TUV councillor Ron McDowell was the only politician to second the proposal while the other parties voted against scrapping plans for the new charges.

BBC News NI went along to find out what tourists and locals thought about being charged £4 for self-guided tours in the future.

In May, Belfast City Council agreed plans to charge people a £4 entrance fee to the city hall ground floor exhibition as part of its ‘City Hall Income Generation Project’.

It was decided that free tours should take place through community visits organised by councillors and that under 18s would be exempt from the new charges.

Currently, members of the public can turn up for a walk-in booking or book exhibition tickets for up to nine people by email at no cost.

Collins said plans to raise revenue by increasing the prices of services was “worrying”.

“An exhibition that really was free, is now going to be charged. Where does this end? Will we start charging people to access the building itself?”, he added.

McDowell, who seconded the proposal said that he felt Collins had a point, “considering this building is owned by the citizens of Belfast” that it would be charging them for something they “already own”.

The DUP, SDLP, UUP, Green Party, Sinn Féin, Alliance Party and one Independent councillor voted against the proposal to scrap the new charges.

BBC News NI contacted the main parties.

A spokesperson for the DUP group on Belfast City Council said that they have a “strategic plan” to deliver more benefit to the ratepayers of the city.

“At present tourists to the city, mainly large groups from cruise ships, are accessing the exhibition for free and costs for staffing etc are being absorbed by ratepayers.

“The £4 charge means visitors can pay £10 to access both the exhibition and a tour of city hall.

“Provision has been made for residents of the city to still access these for free through civic dignitaries or councillors.”

It is currently free to visit the City Hall visitor exhibition.

The exhibition opened in 2017 and is found on the east wing of the ground floor.

If offers a self-guided journey from Belfast’s past to present across six themed zones, stretching through 16 rooms.

The city hall offers a separate 45 minute guided tour for visitors which costs £6 for adults and is free for children.

This tour offers glimpses into areas not usually accessible to the public like the council chamber and some of the upstairs rooms.

The public has full access the toilets, coffee shop, gift shop and stained windows along the north west and north east corridors from the main reception. There are no plans to change this.

Geraldine and Martin O’Hare, originally from Belfast, came from Melbourne to visit family.

The O’Hares have lost neither their accent nor their nostalgia for Belfast.

“If you come to Belfast, you have to see the City Hall. For Australians or anyone, the City Hall is Belfast. Not the docks. Not the parks.

“That’s what it’s all about”, Martin told BBC News NI.

Minutes later, he was reunited with his aunt outside the iconic building that he said is a central part of Belfast for tourists and locals alike.

Geraldine told BBC News NI that everything in the city hall should be free for those who live in Northern Ireland, instead of the free tours having to be booked through a councillor.

“A public building should be available for the public, the people of Northern Ireland and Belfast especially.”

“It’s there for the public to use and even a bonus for the visitors of Belfast”, she added.

Visiting Belfast from Copenhagen, Henrick thought that £4 “isn’t too bad”.

Fresh from doing the tour, he said it was a “great experience” where you can “read a lot about the history of Belfast and Northern Ireland”.

“I think you can make tourists pay for it and then the members of the city or community should be free of charge. That’s a way you can do it”, he added.

Sahid Zaman and Zerin Salma weren’t as enthusiastic about paying for the tour.

“It’s very good but not worth the money. I think it should be open to all people so they don’t need to pay that”, Sahid said.

His message for councillors was clear: “I think it should be free – keep it as it is”.

“This is our own history so you shouldn’t pay”, Zerin added.

Fionnuala McCarten and Ted Workman were visiting the city hall to register the birth of their four-week-old daughter Fiadh.

Asked if they would pay for the exhibition, Fionnuala said if she was tourist she would but if you live here, “there’s no point”.

Ted agreed: “As someone who lives here I wouldn’t pay £4 but maybe as a tourist I actually would because if I was visiting a different country I probably would to go in and check out the history and stuff”.

Stockport Trefoil members Eva, Ashley and Jean are in Northern Ireland for the Trefoil national meeting in Belfast on Saturday.

They popped into the exhibition before heading over to the the Titanic museum.

Jean told BBC News NI that in Manchester “a lot of the tours you have to pay but they are free to local residents so maybe that is the way to go”.

Eva thinks that £4 is a reasonable amount for visitors but said because it was free, it was “more of a tempting offer”.

She said she felt “rates” that local people pay mean it should be free for them.

No date has been set yet for the charges to come into action and the council has already decided they will be reviewed after one year.