Stormont has turned down a request from Belfast City Council to match fund its spending on alley gates across the city.
A request from the council asking the Stormont Department of Justice to “step up to the plate” and combat antisocial behaviour by equalling the local authority’s spending on neighbourhood alley gates was unsuccessful. A letter from the permanent secretary Richard Pengelly said “extraordinary constraints” on their budget meant they would not be able to provide funding for the alley gate programme.
Last month City Hall wrote to the then Justice Minister Naomi Long to match fund the council ’s spending of half a million pounds this year on the transformative scheme, which has dramatically affected levels of antisocial behaviour in streets. The council recently announced a swathe of gates distributed in Belfast’s four quarters, and a list of reserves, but its allocation goes nowhere near meeting the demand for alley gating across the city.
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Botanic SDLP Councillor Gary McKeown, who forwarded the proposal at City Hall, said: “I have concerns that many communities have met the criteria for gates, but the not-insignificant funding the council is providing is not enough to cover those gates. It raises fundamental issues about who pays to reduce crime and antisocial behaviour in this city.”
He added: “ I think the Department of Justice needs to step up to the mark and support this work.”
The letter from Stormont replied: “Unfortunately, given the ongoing priorities within the remit of the Department and extraordinary constraints on our budget, the DoJ is not, at this time, in a position to provide funding for the allegating programme.
“The DoJ has used its powers in the past to assist the council when alley gates have been sought by residents to prevent access due to antisocial behaviour, but usually this is limited to interface areas and precedes adoption of the gates by the council. On a small number of occasions we have agreed to fund such measures, albeit this has usually been on the recommendation of policing colleagues for express and pressing community protection needs.”
It adds: “The Department fully recognises the negative impact that ASB can have on communities, and is currently leading on a review of ASB legislation to ensure that the relevant authorities, such as councils, have effective and proportionate enforcement powers in place to tackle the issue.
“In partnership with the Northern Ireland Policing Board, the Department provides annual funding of £826,516 to Policing and Community Safety Partnerships who lead on the Department’s response to community safety issues at a local level. That funding is utilised by the PCSPs across Belfast’s districts to fund a range of projects and initiatives to address ASB, including supporting the important work being conducted via the Holyland Intervention Project.”
In September Belfast Council announced the full list of streets receiving new alley gates across the city for the current financial year. 144 alley gates were agreed, 36 in each quarter of the city, with a reserve list.
Each part of the city has seen different concentrations of alley gating, with East Belfast for example placing the majority of its gates in a relatively small area. Across the east of the city, for example, this year there were 132 requests in all for alley gates.
Each gate costs around £2,500. There will be a statutory consultation process lasting around three months, with the full legislative process lasting from six to nine months.
The council has delivered four phases of the alleygating programme to date across the city which has seen the installation of 1081 gates, with both council funding and funding from external sources.
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