HOUSES, JOBS AND INVESTMENT REQUIRED
Council needs to be driver for real change in north Belfast.
The Irish Republican Socialist Party if elected to be Belfast City Council will demand that the council becomes the driver for real change for working class communities in North Belfast.
I.R.S.P. candidate in the up coming Council elections Paul Little said,
‘MLA, s and councilors who represent north Belfast need to respond to the their failure to secure 270 jobs at the rejected ASDA application on the Crumlin Road. If this travesty had occurred in any other part of the city there would be uproar, instead our local representatives chose to lambast ASDA even though ASDA’s position was clear from the beginning that an off sales license was critical to their intention to locate on the Crumlin Road. Local communities are asking what exactly did our local representatives do? what actions did they take to insure that ASDA got the required License that would have created 270 new jobs in what is an economic wasteland and unemployment black spot?’
The IRSP are demanding that Belfast City Council take the lead immediately in regenerating interface communities, we are aware and support a recent initiative on the Girdwood/Cliftonpark avenue site to build a community hub, this project requires community support and we lend our support to community activists striving to this end.
In conclusion, Mr. Little said,
‘That the Oldpark ward is the only ward in Belfast that does not have its own civic amenity/ recycling depot, the IRSP are calling on BCC to invest in the area and site a recycling centre in the Hillview road industrial park. This project would create employment and a shared work space and help to regenerate the area and would invigorate this under utilized industrial estate for the benefit of the local community.’
The finance for this project could be found by the closure and relocation of the Agnes street depot. This amenity is antiquated and not fit for purpose; present workers in Agnes Street would be relocated to the proposed site on the Hillview Road.
