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| By the late 1950s, the BUA contained 40% of Northern Ireland's population, a figure much too high by The Belfast Regional Survey and Plan's standards. The BRSP, also known as the Matthew Plan after the professor at its head, argued that the sprawl would destroy the amenity value of Belfast's natural landscape, the hills and river valley in which the city is nestled. A large amount of decrepit housing was also a problem, requiring widespread modernization and replacement. Furthermore, the city's unemployment, at 5%, was considered much too high for the city's delicate economy. The report suggested a Stop Line, commonly known as the Matthew Line, which would limit growth, preserve the landscape and control the population of the city itself, directing overflow population to small regional towns outside the BUA. With the social upheaval at the end of the decade, the concerns about population growth and unemployment would soon be unnecessary and heightened respectively. |