“The opening of Belfast’s £17.5 million flagship arts centre may be delayed by up to a year after it emerged that work on the new city-centre venue has not yet begun five months after it was originally scheduled to. Construction of the Metropolitan Arts Centre, the city’s first purpose-built multi-platform arts venue, has been held up because the Department of Culture, Arts and Leisure [in London] has failed to release funding of £10.8 million necessary to allow it to proceed.”