WE look at the stories that were making the headlines in the Andersonstown News this week in 1985...
Unity Flats challenge laid down
THE Unity Flats Tenant’s Association has challenged both the Housing Executive and Department of Environment to attend a public meeting in the flats complex.
This follows a decision by Housing Executive chiefs to scuttle a plan originally announced in March 1984 to install solid fuel central heating in Unity Flats. The DOE have refused to ratify the Executive's proposals for the Carrick Hill complex which involved £19 million of improvement work. In a hard-hitting statement, the Tenants' Association accuse the authorities of "double dealing" and "duplicity" in their dealings with the people of Unity and reiterate their opposition to Economy 7 or any other type of alternative heating system.
The Association also question the relationship between the Housing Executive and the Department of Environment and ask who is ultimately responsible for housing decisions.
"For two years now we have been negotiating with the Housing Executive in a constructive and reasonable manner in order to obtain decent living conditions for the people of Unity,” said TA spokesman Seán Maskey.
"We can only conclude that our constructive approach has been taken as a sign of weakness and encouraged the DOE to make fools out of a whole community", he added. "In these circumstances, we can only stress our determination to fight the DOE and Housing Executive tooth and nail on this issue."
The Tenants' Association are to meet with Executive heads on Monday next, and will be proposing that the Belfast Regional Controller, Billy Cameron, and his DOE counterpart, meet with Unity residents to justify their decisions.
"The argument about solid fuel central heating has been fought and won," said Seán Maskey. "The Housing Executive have accepted that only solid fuel heating would suit the needs of local people – the majority of whom are in the house all day and already having difficulty paying their electricity bills."
On 26th November, 1984, WJ Cameron wrote to the Unity TA acknowledging that 96 per cent of the people in Unity favoured solid fuel heating. Mr Cameron went on: "It was acknowledged that if a decision was to be made purely on technical grounds, Economy 7 would have been the preferred option. The Executive gave a high weighting, however, to social factors in this priority estate and, on balance, favoured solid fuel."
PRESENTATION: Liam Higgins, Chairman of the Roddy McCorley Society, presents a cheque on behalf of the Society to Teresa Holland for the POWs' Week held before Christmas 1984. Committee members also pictured are Michael McMorrow and John Mcllkenny
Housing Executive plan brings hope to Brooke and Trenchard
RESIDENTS of the Brook and Trenchard bousing estates in West Belfast are hopeful that the Housing Executive is set to act on the area's most pressing environmental problem.
For 15 years now local people have been demanding that the Ladybrook River, which runs along the back of houses, be closed over. In recent years residents have likened the river, which runs from Blacks Road to the Woodlands Bridge at Finaghy Road North, to an "open sewer". Now however, the Housing Executive has drawn up a plan of action which, depending on the approval of residents and the availability of funds, could be implemented in 1985.
A group of residents who have been in contact with the Executive over the river have arranged a public meeting tomorrow to discuss the proposals. The meeting will take place in the Suffolk Day Centre at 7.30 pm. A spokesman for the tenants said it was in everyone’s interest to be at the meeting.
"According to the Executive's plan they will only cover in the river from Blacks Road as far as Willowvale Avenue, and this will probably cause some controversy among, people living past this point," he said.
