COLIN Councillor Danny Baker is set to meet with the owner of a site close to Mount Eagles that has become a hotbed of antisocial activity. The land, which houses two barns, has been the scene of a number of instances of antisocial behaviour culminating in the burning of a car last week. Speaking about the incident, Cllr Baker said: “Residents had spotted this car driving about the day beforehand then it was parked at the side of the wasteland. The residents had phoned the PSNI who came out but had no way of moving it. “Younger ones were then about the wasteland and the car was set on fire.  I have spoken to the owner of the site who I will be meeting this week to try and discuss how we can secure the site better.” He added: “It is becoming a hotspot of anti-social behaviour and residents living in the Mount Eagles Close area are being tortured with the noise and fires that are being lit close to the houses. It has been hard for them over the summer months and it is something that we have to work on. We need to have a conversation about what this land could look like in the future. There are two barns which are operational but we have had issues with in the past. It was only last year that we had two girls trapped in them and a fire lit so it is concerning and needs addressed asap.”

ALL victims were cried for with tears that held an equal amount of salt. All victims missed – and were missed on – the best days in their families’ lives: the births, the marriages, the bursting-with-pride days. Every single lost life mattered. We don’t have to agree on our narratives of conflict to recognise that. While those who took lives reconciled those actions in a conflict context, for bereaved families that reconciliation was and remains impossible. That chair is never filled, that grave is always calling out, that photograph is always reminding us. It doesn’t go away, there is no line to be drawn. Since the ceasefires, families bereaved during our conflict have been told that their rights and their loved ones’ lives don’t matter. They knew that when the Good Friday Agreement didn’t pay attention to them.

A WEST Belfast man is heading up the work of a new charity focused on problem gambling.

KATE Hoey’s great mate Nigel Farage has announced another career change. The sometime City trader, failed MP, absentee MEP, UKIP leader and Brexit champion has been at something of a loose end since the UK left the EU. They say the hand that wields the sword never wears the crown, and while there was never any prospect of Toad moving to anywhere more salubrious than Toad Hall, his slide into oblivion has been surprisingly rapid. His latest job illustrates with tragic and painful accuracy the depth of his predicament. While the other big names in the Leave tent are filling their boots with dodgy Covid contracts for their friends and family and getting seats in the Lords, Nige is making a living sending personal video messages to his his gammon supporters for sixty quid a pop. 

Singing sensation Conleth Kane has unveiled his new song Proud with hopes that it will become the dance floor anthem for Belfast Pride 2021 — once, that is, protocols permit night clubs to reopen.