Plans to lengthen Sunday trading hours in Belfast scrapped
Proposals to extend Sunday trading in Belfast have been defeated in a vote at Belfast city council
Last updated 19th May 2017
If successful, the city would have been granted resort status, allowing large supermarkets to open all day for 18 Sundays per year.
Belfast City councillors voted 12-3 against the proposal, with Sinn Féin, the SDLP and DUP all against.
Glyn Roberts from Retail NI welcomed the result:
"This would have given an unfair competitive advantage to large supermarkets and disadvantaged local small shops, whose Sunday trade is vital for their survival," he said.
The organisation put forward proposals at a committee meeting on Friday to introduce a 'weekend summit' for the city.
This aims to establish a strategy to improve weekend retail and hospitality arrangements.
"Belfast has fantastic retail and hospitality on offer, but we need to look at how the city can make further improvements to the visitor experience," he said.
"We have written to Belfast City Council Chief Executive to host this 'summit' as soon as possible and agree a strategy this summer is the best yet for shoppers and tourists."
He added: "Doing more to promote our world class independent retailers and enhancing cafe culture are ideas we are keen to promote.