Belfast City Council – Slugger O'Toole

Spinners and Losers: Sinn Fein cool the heat…

Jay Burbank on July 10, 2020, 7:10 am

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As ‘crematorium-[side]gate’ moves into its second week, and the legislature bit its gums into a non-legally binding motion, it appears as though the heat is shifting. The media are now fixating on two Belfast city council big hitters (BBC): The Belfast Telegraph is reporting the council’s chief executive Suzanne Wylie and director Nigel Grimshaw have lodged a formal grievance with a solicitor. They are said to have warned they may resign if “concerns are not resolved”. What I find remarkable …

“This decision is directly, but not solely, related to the issues which arose around the Bobby Storey cremation.”

Pete Baker on July 9, 2020, 7:04 pm

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As BBC NI political editor Mark Devenport said a few days ago, there is “No prospect of Stormont falling.” That doesn’t mean there might not be casualties elsewhere… Having apologised in public for “operational decisions” around the Bobby Storey cremation at Roselawn Cemetery, the Belfast Telegraph reports that Belfast City Council Chief Executive, Suzanne Wylie, and director of city and neighbourhood services, Nigel Grimshaw, have lodged a formal grievance with the city solicitor, and have threatened to resign “if [their] …

What we can’t do is permit an approach which divides rather than unites, regardless of any other areas of agreement.

Soapbox on October 2, 2019, 10:48 am

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SOAPBOX: Alliance Councillor Emmet McDonough-Brown takes issue with his Green Party colleague Councillor Brian Smyth who last week wrote on Slugger about flags, a vexed question which arouses deep passions in our politics.

Shared Space not Neutral Space: Looking Again at the Flag Issue

Brian Smyth on September 27, 2019, 8:54 pm

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Just when you think the flag issue has been done and dusted for another year, here it is back again – thanks to a Belfast City Council motion from the Alliance Party. The motion emerged at committee level at Belfast City Council and called for a public consultation on the flags. The flags issue has been predictably toxic this year, and has been marked by fairly dogmatic positions from a number of local parties. I took note of the Alliance …

“Sinn Fein’s Arder Carson said that it was his democratic right to choose not to be painted…”

Pete Baker on January 13, 2019, 3:09 pm

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Or, indeed, not to wear clothes… ANYhoo… On Thursday The Belfast Telegraph reported Sinn Féin’s ‘farcical’ attempt to prevent Belfast City Council granting permission for local artist and political cartoonist Brian John Spencer to “sketch the Council Chamber and the Council meeting in January”. At a Council Strategic Policy and Resources Committee meeting in December 2018 a Sinn Féin motion rejecting the request – which “would involve Mr Spencer being allowed access to the Chamber for a couple of hours …

DUP Councillor refuses to engage with Pro-Choice Group

Soapbox on March 5, 2018, 9:21 am

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Emma Gallen is an activist for Alliance for Choice. Alliance for Choice had planned to be at several different International Women’s Day events last week. But the snow meant that many were postponed. As a result, a well meaning campaign, asking councillors at Belfast City Council to support Kate Nicholl’s motion to support the decriminalisation of abortion, gained more traction than expected. The debate at City Council was due to be on Thursday March 1st, but was also postponed due …

Belfast City Council passes a 1.89% rate increase.

David McCann on February 1, 2018, 9:13 pm

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The district rate will see a 1.89% increase for 2018/19. The council says this will mean rate payers will pay on average less than £1 more per month or less than £10 per year. For businesses it will be an average increase of £12 per month or £144 per year. The impact varies by property, a Terraced House will see an increase of around £5.48 per year, were as a 4 Bed Detached House will see an increase of £18.63. …

Lord Mayor of Belfast: “I would not stand for an assembly that is not functioning”

Finn Purdy on November 24, 2017, 9:10 am

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The Lord Mayor of Belfast, Nuala McAllister visited an A level Politics class last week to ask students how they viewed Belfast and, in line with her theme for her year as Lord Mayor of ‘Global Belfast’, how the city could be more welcoming. The Alliance Party politician expressed her dismay at the rise of hate crime in Belfast and explained to the students that she believed that sectarian attitudes were still prevalent in Northern Ireland. She drew a contrast between …

The Holylands: a manifesto for urban renewal

Soapbox on November 17, 2017, 9:09 am

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Emmet McDonough-Brown is an Alliance Party Councillor for Botanic. Since my election in 2014, I’ve devoted a fair bit of time and effort to the challenges faced by the Holylands and its community of settled residents. I won’t rehearse the full and inglorious history of how we arrived here but the experiences that residents have endured are just awful. I consider myself an optimist though (which is why I joined Alliance!) and it has always been my view that the …

Editing the Past

Soapbox on August 22, 2017, 6:02 pm

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David Capener is a writer based in Belfast, an Editorial contributor at Archinet and a reporter for World Architecure Community. He blogs at www.futurecrowds.com All history is biography. It is the story we tell ourselves to make sense of the world; our place in it, and, those we share it with. Stories shape our world and the storyteller shapes the story. One of the ways our stories find expression is through the manifestation of symbols — flags, images, colours, statues. By …

Belfast City Council to discuss bonfire motion

David McCann on August 2, 2017, 3:17 pm

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Belfast City Council will hold a special meeting tonight at 6:30pm to discuss a motion on bonfires brought by Sinn Fein. The text of the motion is as follows; “This Council is opposed to rogue bonfires where they present a threat to life, to property, to the environment, where they cause damage to public amenities and where they facilitate hate crime activities. “On the basis of these concerns this Council gives permission to our Council officers to remove bonfire materials or …

3 SDLP Councillors quit the party

David McCann on June 19, 2017, 1:10 pm

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In this mornings Belfast Telegraph, Suzanne Breen reports trouble in the SDLP’s ranks as three of their councillors on Belfast City Council have quit the party. Cllrs, Pat Convery, Declan Boyle and Kate Mullan were suspended after they abstained on a motion dealing with harassment outside reproductive health facilities. Breen reports; The three who abstained told the Belfast Telegraph that they were quitting the party with “profoundly heavy hearts”. They said they would not resign their seats but would continue …

SDLP suspend three councillors on Belfast City Council

David McCann on April 6, 2017, 10:16 pm

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From the BBC On Monday night, the three Belfast City Council members abstained on a vote condemning harassment and intimidation of people outside the facilities. It is understood Pat Convery, Kate Mullan and Declan Boyle have been suspended for an indefinite period. The SDLP had seven members on Belfast City Council but now it has only four. Mr Convery, a former lord mayor of Belfast, will be replaced as SDLP group leader, and Kate Mullan will be replaced as deputy …

Belfast City Council sexism row/anti-street harassment

Elaine Crory on April 4, 2017, 7:36 pm

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This week is anti-street harassment week, a week of action by activists worldwide to draw attention to the problem of street harassment (1). Notice I don’t use the word ”cat-calling”. Too cutesy and toothless, it is seen as mildly naughty but basically harmless, a bit of a laugh. A bit like a Councillor commenting on the pleasure he derives from the sight of the Council’s CEO cycling about the city she basically manages. All in good fun, right? Certainly that …

A partnership between Credit Unions and Belfast City Council could make £100 million available for social investment…

Soapbox on April 4, 2017, 4:39 pm

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John Hume once said the Credit Union movement that of “all the things I’ve been doing, it’s the thing I’m proudest of because no movement has done more good for the people of Ireland, north and south, than the credit union movement.” This is some acknowledgement from a Nobel Peace Laureate but then again he was a founder member of Derry Credit Union and at the age of 27 he became the youngest ever President of the Irish League of Credit …

What’s That Thing? “a clumsy, aggressive, cheap-looking new sculpture overlooking Belfast”

Pete Baker on March 27, 2017, 2:53 pm

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As the BBC reports, Belfast has won another award! In association with the Architecture Foundation, the Spectator magazine has bestowed its What’s That Thing? award for bad public art on Origin – part of the Farset Project, one of “seven big, bold and ambitious cultural projects” that Belfast City Council have developed alongside the Arts Council of Northern Ireland with an overall cost of £900,000. An 11-metre high public art piece located at Squire’s Hill at the entrance to Cavehill Country Park, with £100,000 …

Soapbox: “…row in behind public opinion or protect their partners in Government”

Soapbox on January 3, 2017, 12:58 pm

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With every day that passes, the path for those seeking to block a full public inquiry into the diabolical RHI scheme is getting narrower. Many parties have suggested various forms of investigations and inquiries , but what is becoming abundantly clear is that only one form of inquiry can get to the truth, and that is a full public inquiry under the Inquiries Act 2005. That is why the motion constructed by Cllr Ruth Patterson, which comes before Belfast City …

“It is not just Stormont that has a Social Investment Fund.”

Pete Baker on December 11, 2016, 4:50 pm

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Newton Emerson in yesterday’s Irish News with some details on the other, less talked about, ‘social investment’ funds out there. From the Irish News IT is not just Stormont that has a Social Investment Fund. Belfast City Council runs the Belfast Investment Fund and associated Local Investment Fund, with a combined pot of £31 million over three years for ‘community projects’. Alliance has claimed the council funds “aren’t advertised properly in any meaningful way”, leaving “those in the know in prime position to …

Belfast City Council debate on inviting the ROI & NI football teams to City Hall

David McCann on January 5, 2016, 7:55 pm

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Tonight Belfast City Council rejected two amendments by the DUP and UUP that would have changed the original decision by the council in December to invite the Irish Republic and Northern Ireland football teams for a reception in Belfast City Hall. Here are some live tweets from myself and Rebecca Black from the Belfast Telegraph from the debate .@BrianKingston says Cllrs declaring that they dont support NI is “sending out the wrong message. “ — David McCann (@dmcbfs) January 5, …

Belfast City Council vote to record Planning Committee meetings.

David McCann on December 2, 2015, 11:44 am

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OPEN GOVERNMENT? This issue has been a hotly debated topic since the new Belfast super council was elected in May 2014 and has come before council no less than three times.

However, last night the council voted by the slimmest of margins 28 for to 27 against to allow planning committee meetings to be recorded and made available to the public. The proposal was brought by the Alliance party.