INFRASTRUCTURE Minister Nichola Mallon has been challenged to record the number of unadopted alleyways in North Belfast.

The issue was raised by Sinn Féin North Belfast MLA Gerry Kelly during questions in the Assembly at Stormont on Tuesday.

Mr Kelly argued that such alleyways are often overgrown and plagued with vermin, becoming inaccessible for residents.

“Unadopted alleyways in urban areas are causing residents massive problems and the Infrastructure Minister needs to act,” he said.

“At the moment these alleyways which are often overgrown and plagued with vermin are inaccessible for residents including for things as simple as putting your bin out.

“I raised this issue with the Infrastructure Minister at the Assembly today as it is of concern that her department hasn’t even quantified the scale of the problem.

“The Department will adapt alleyways when they are brought up to standard but this can be costly for people and far from straight forward," he added.

“I along with my colleagues and activists in North Belfast have had to go into some alleyways in community clean-ups and the situations we have encountered have been absolutely terrible for the families living with such awful conditions."

Mr Kelly said it would seem logical that the first step in tackling the problem would be to map out and quantify the issue before forming a strategy to resolve it.

“Frankly the response from Minister Mallon today to my question on this issue was somewhat disappointing and will come as no relief to the many residents I represent who are suffering from this problem.

“Finally I must pay tribute to those community groups and activists that have been engaged in local clean-ups to tackle unadopted alleyways, however these are short term fixes to a much bigger issue of health and safety.”

In response, Minister Mallon said she was aware of the issue in North Belfast but said her Department did not have responsibility for unadopted alleyways.

“I am aware that this is an issue in North Belfast,” she explained. “The difficulty to date, which has not been resolved by any of my predecessors has been the fact that the Department does not currently have responsibility for unadopted alleyways and therefore does not have officers recording this information.

“I am very keen to provide some solution in the here and now, which is why we have created the greening of alleyways programme.

“I encourage MLAs to ask their residents and their communities who are keen to have a greening of alleyways programme to contact their local council so that we may be able to work together, in partnership, to transform these places.”