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.
