BELFAST City Council has agreed to increase the household rates to almost eight per cent at its monthly meeting.
Alliance Party councillor Michael Long proposed to increase the rates to the lower 7.71 per cent rate instead, however, this would only have been achieved by removing the diversionary funding scheme which festivals such as Féile an Phobail benefit from and which has been praised for ensuring trouble-free summers in many parts of the city.
The meeting began with Máirtín MacGabhann addressing the Council with a moving statement about the need for secondary legislation to pass Dáithí’s Law. Sinn Féin councillors Micheal Donnelly and Róis-Máire Donnelly requested the Lord Mayor Tina Black to write to the British Secretary of State, Chris Heaton-Harris, on behalf of Belfast City Council to exercise his powers to legislate Dáithí’s Law with immediate effect. The Lord Mayor stated that she would be happy to do so. Members of the Council expressed their support to the MacGabhann family.
Amid the current industrial action, People Before Profit Councillor Fiona Ferguson offered solidarity to workers on strike. She stated: “There are more people currently balloting for strike action or striking than went out during the minors' strike.”
SDLP Cllr Carl Whyte congratulates the various Oscar nominees from Ireland including James Martin from Belfast in the film An Irish Goodbye.
Sinn Féin Councillor Rónan McLaughlin raised the issue of delays regarding Irish language street signage. Belfast City Council policy changed in July last year and 600 applications have made but not a single Irish language street sign has been erected since the change.
Sinn Féin Cllr Ciarán Beattie stated that the “process is a shambles.”
PBP Cllr Fiona Ferguson said: “It is always the Irish language that is put on the long finger in this council” adding “we should act urgently on this issue.”
SDLP Cllr Séamas de Faoite made a proposal for area working groups to help in building school safety zones. Councillors voted against this stating that this power lay with the Department for Infrastructure.
But back to the rates increase. Alliance party Cllr Michael Long made a proposal to reduce the rate increase to 7.71 per cent by removing the diversionary funding scheme.
The scheme provides funding to divert young people away from anti-social and potentially criminal behaviour during the summer period. The hugely successful annual Féile an Phobail festival is one of the beneficiaries from this funding.
Cllr McLaughlin immediately made challenges to the proposal stating that this had not been equality screened and raised the fact that many groups were involved in the scheme and hadn’t been consulted. Cllr Beattie asked whether the proposal was competent at this late stage. The proposal was ruled as not competent due the time constraints with the Council having to set the rate within the next two weeks. Cllr Ciarán Beattie stated that the Alliance proposal is a 0.2 per cent reduction, which is a reduction of 83p in a year.
DUP Cllr George Dorrian and Cllr Gareth Spratt both highlighted the benefits the funding scheme has had for working class communities and in keeping young people out of trouble.
PBP Cllr Fiona Ferguson stated that the rates hike was “utterly unjustifiable” and “completely avoidable”. She emphasised that the community response to an eight per cent rise in rates was “not just being met with anger but being met with fear”.
Alliance Councillor Michael Long’s proposal for a 7.71 per cent increase subject to an Equality Screening was rejected by 43 votes to 12. Members of Belfast City Council agreed to an increase in the district rate for 2023/24 of 7.99 per cent. This will mean an average monthly increase of £2.05 for a terraced property, £3.13 for a three-bed semi-detached property, £6.97 for a four-bed detached property, £1.98 for an apartment, £51.44 for an office property and £42.14 for a retail property.
Two motions were also adopted on the night to end hostile environment policy and support for striking health workers.
