London Night Czar visits Belfast to meet local night-time economy partnership  

Following a successful festive period in Belfast including delivery of late-night public transport services, a range of local organisations interested in improving the city’s night-time economy joined forces to host a visit by London Night Czar Amy Lamé today (Thursday 26^th January 2023).  

Amy has served as London’s first Night Czar since 2016, working to champion London’s vibrant night-time economy, making sure the city has a 24-hour culture it can be proud of.  

The Belfast night-time economy partnership includes representatives from Translink, Visit Belfast, Belfast City Council, Belfast Chamber of Trade and Commerce, Hospitality Ulster, BIDs (Linen Quarter / Cathedral Quarter / Belfast One), Retail NI, IMTAC, Free the Night and the Police Service of Northern Ireland.

The partners met Amy to discuss the London experience and determine key learnings & recommendations to help enhance Belfast’s night-time experience and boost the evening economy.   

London Night Czar, Amy Lamé, said: “I was delighted to come to Belfast to learn more about the city’s work to boost life at night and share our experiences. In London we are proud of our varied and bustling nightlife, and the 1.4m Londoners working evenings and nights across a variety of sectors. We share similar significant challenges with the lasting impact of the pandemic and the cost of living crisis, and it is so important to learn what other cities are doing to tackle this. I am proud Belfast and London share a collective commitment to work closely with councils, businesses, residents and workers to ensure we are a creating a fair, inclusive and sustainable life at night.”  

Councillor Mal O’Hara, Chair of Belfast City Council’s City Centre All-Party Working Group said: “Today’s meeting with Amy Lamé has given us a valuable opportunity to learn more about building a night time economy. In Belfast, there are a number of challenges that we’ll need to address with our partners if our night time offer is to become thriving and diverse. The pandemic has had a significant impact and the current cost-of-living crisis brings with it further challenges. We need to carefully balance the needs of our city centre residents and businesses, while maintaining a clean, green and safe city.  

“We have ambitions to significantly grow the number of people living in our city centre and our Bolder Vision is clear about taking a placemaking focused approach to Belfast’s regeneration and revitalisation. Despite the challenges, Belfast has incredible strengths to build upon, not least our unique music experience, as a UNESCO music city, our cultural festivals and events, and our fantastic food and hospitality offer. Building Belfast’s night time economy provides an opportunity to attract people to stay longer and spend more and to create more jobs in the hospitality, leisure and cultural sectors, as well as the taxi and private hire trade.”  

Chris Conway, Translink Group Chief Executive, said: “We’re committed to creating better connected, more sustainable and economically vibrant towns and cities for everyone and are pleased to welcome Amy to Belfast to learn from her wealth of experience supporting London’s night-time economy. 

“Whilst we know that there are many budget challenges, it is important that our public transport services are properly funded so we can play our part in growing the economy here. We want to build momentum on our successful partnership approach over Christmas when over 10,000 people used late night bus and train services demonstrating the importance of exploring the need for a more permanent, financially sustainable late-night public transport solution providing safe, attractive and low-cost travel options.

“Translink is one piece of the jigsaw when it comes to the local night-time economy with our services providing a vital link that connects people to jobs, hospitality and more so it’s essential we continue to work with other city representatives in a joined-up approach to maximise the potential of our evening economy.” 

The partnership will look forward to getting feedback from the Czar on her key recommendations to help drive forward the partnership’s combined vision for an improved year-round night-time economy in Belfast.