Belfast City Council is demanding the Stormont Justice Minister “step up to the plate” and combat antisocial behaviour by equalling the local authority’s spending on neighbourhood alley gates.
At the recent full meeting of Belfast City Council, elected members agreed for City Hall to write to Justice Minister Naomi Long calling on her to match fund the council’s spending of half a million pounds this year on the transformative scheme. The Council says the scheme has dramatically affected levels of antisocial behaviour in neighbourhoods.
The council recently announced a swathe of gates distributed in Belfast’s four quarters, and a list of reserves. However, the council allocation goes nowhere near meeting the demand for alley gating across the city.
Read more: Belfast Council planned alley gate locations announced
Botanic SDLP Councillor Gary McKeown, who forwarded the proposal, told the chamber at the council meeting: “I welcome the fact we have taken a significant step forward in the allocation of alley gates. This will provide light at the end of the tunnel for so many communities across the city who have been crying out for this for years.
“It will help people feel safer in their homes and encourage more of the transformation we saw particularly during the pandemic, to revitalise and reimagine the space behind people’s homes.
“I realise that there are people who would be less favourable towards gates, so I would encourage people in those areas where they have been allocated to respond to the consultation process. Because ultimately it is for residents to decide if they progress.”
He added: “I do have concerns that many communities have met the criteria for gates, but the not-insignificant funding the council is providing is not enough to cover those gates. It raises fundamental issues about who pays to reduce crime and antisocial behaviour in this city.
“The council has committed £500,000 and significant officer time, but I think the Department of Justice needs to step up to the mark and support this work.”
Belfast Council last month announced the full list of streets receiving new alley gates across the city for the current financial year. 144 alley gates were agreed, 36 in each quarter of the city, with a reserve list.
Each part of the city has seen different concentrations of alley gating, with East Belfast for example placing the majority of its gates in a relatively small area. The east of the city this year saw 132 requests for alley gates.
There will be a statutory consultation process lasting around three months relating to the council announcement, with the full legislative process lasting from six to nine months. Each gate costs around £2,500.
The council has delivered four phases of the alleygating programme to date across the city which has seen the installation of 1081 gates, with both council funding and funding from external sources.
Lisnasharragh SDLP Councillor Séamas de Faoite told the council: “Being able to put on an additional half a million to the rates to be able to deliver the alleygating programme will not necessarily be something we are able to do in the future, given the financial outlook ahead. And that will cause some concern for the residents on the shortlists that have been decided in the last round of area working groups.”
He added: “There are those who have campaigned, contacted their councillors, MLA’s, MP’s, brought their issues to local media, who have done everything they can to make sure their street is included in this scheme. But we simply as an organisation do not have the money to cover it. So we need to ask other government agencies to step up and respond to the challenges.
“It is worth remembering that one of the first rounds of alley gating in the city was actually funded by the Justice department and was a response directly to issues of crime and antisocial behaviour.”
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