Community representatives in the lower Falls have called for increased resources for youth provision as they hope for a brighter and more peaceful summer. 

It comes following a recent spate of unrest around the Ross Street area in recent weeks.

Residents had recently welcomed the long-anticipated demolition of the former credit union building in the area, which had become a hotspot for antisocial behaviour. However, youths soon set fire to rubble at the site and attacked police and fire service personnel who responded to the incident. 

Antisocial behaviour is by no means not unique to Ross Street, and community representatives say police have found themselves “stretched” across the city during the current lockdown. 

Schools are closed, but youth clubs who usually help channel young people’s energies elsewhere face restrictions too. 

Lisa Lynn, a Community Safety Officer with the Communities in Transition Programme, explained: “Not having that resource of the clubs open where the kids would normally go has contributed to a spike in anti-social behaviour. 

“Youth providers are allowed to work with at-risk young people, which they have been doing down here between St Peter’s and the Frank Gillen Centre, but that would be a lot of one-to-one work or small pods. You have to have authorisation from the EA (Education Authority) before that can take place. 

“The outreach and detached work is limited as well.”

Vincent McElkerney from the Falls Residents’ Association commented: “The problem is that we were used to antisocial behaviour at the weekends – now it’s every night. 

“This is where the police are being stretched and sometimes losing control, doing stupid things like not dealing with the issue at the start of the night, waiting until it builds up and then moving in. 

“There might be a crowd of 10 or 15 at the start of the night and they’ll send two trucks, then they’ll wait until there’s 50 of then and then they send the TSG’s (Tactical Support Group), which is not the right way to deal with it.”

The Ross Street area is currently subject to redevelopment plans; the  latest step in plans under the Department for Communities’ Building Successful Communities (BSC) initiative.

Empty flats, which have made the area a spot for youths to congregate, will make way for new social homes and community representatives have worked alongside the Housing Executive to secure alternative accommodation for a few remaining tenants. 

It is hoped that the existing properties will be demolished, a contractor appointed, and the site secured by early summer.

Coupled with a hoped-for redevelopment of the former credit union site, which is privately owned, Vincent said it “practically takes Ross Street out of the equation.  

The lower Falls is also eagerly anticipating the opening of a new £750,000 sports facility at an area known as the ‘back path’. 

The back path was once used to store bonfire wood for the so-called anti-internment bonfire in Divis which, thanks to community efforts, is now largely a thing of the past. 

With the new facility expected to open around Easter, Grosvenor Community Centre Manager, Tina Black, has called for funding to allow for community management of the facility. 

“That would be best managed by the local community,” she said. 

“We need support to have staff members on site because antisocial behaviour does tend to worsen on the brighter nights.”The community sector faced a setback last summer as summer schemes were cancelled amidst the pandemic. 

As the government looks to ease restrictions, Tina said funding for summer schemes will be crucial to providing diversionary activities for young people in the time ahead. 

“I think everybody is very rational and they appreciate why the summer scheme support wasn’t in place for 2020, but in 2021 I don’t envisage any reason why we wouldn’t be having summer schemes,” she said. 

“You can have variations, you can have smaller numbers which you can spread out over seven days, but we would need that support ringfenced and we would need more finances into it. 

“A good hook for kids was trips away, but we have to be mindful of our numbers and I would be hoping Belfast City Council would be making sure the summer schemes are well resourced this year.”

Belfast City Council is set to discuss funding for this year’s summer schemes during this month’s meeting of the Strategic Policy & Resources Committee.

Redevelopment work, properly resourced community facilities, and fully funded summer schemes permitting, it could be a much brighter summer for the lower Falls.