Belfast Council’s Chief Executive has clashed with an elected representative over how the local authority is dealing with problems in the city centre.
At the council ’s recent meeting of its Strategic Policy and Resources Committee, Chief Executive John Walsh reacted to a claim by Alliance Councillor Michael Long that there was “a lack of urgency” in the council’s response to concerns saying that it is “not the case”.
The Chief Executive said he was “pleasantly impressed” by how the city centre looked, while Councillor Long said “quarterly meetings were not dealing with the issues”.
Belfast has seen months of bad headlines concerning littering, graffiti 'tagging', fly tipping, missed collections and rat infestation, with business owners and residents alike crying out against a perceived run-down city centre. This has been compounded with a number of tragic deaths on the streets of the city over the summer, and concerns of antisocial behaviour and open drug use in the city centre.
Read more: Belfast city centre shopping areas to get “specialist cleans” in next few weeks
The council has announced a series of measures to improve cleanliness in the city centre, a result of the recently formed Cleansing Taskforce. It includes a series of “specialist cleans” in shopping streets over the next few weeks, and the creation of a dedicated in-house street washing team.
Councillor Long was voicing concerns at the SP&R Committee about progress on a new all party working group for the city centre which had been agreed earlier in the summer, but which still has not met. He said: “I have to say I am quite disappointed in how this proposal has moved forward, in terms of how the city centre issues are dealt with.
“There doesn’t seem to have been quite the urgency I expected for this. It is not a criticism of officers bringing back a report, but I feel we should have had work started upon this over the summer time - the whole point of my proposal was that we could work on various issues which are ongoing, and raised daily.
“Particularly the issue of vulnerable people in the city, which we did have one meeting on. But on the wider issue of cleanliness, supporting our businesses, tourism strategy, and everything else, the point is we need an urgent move forward.
“The precedent I mentioned was the Primark fire four years ago, where we had meetings convened in a couple of days. And those meetings were held on a weekly basis at the start. To have meetings quarterly in the long term is not addressing the issues with the urgency I think is required for all of this.
“It is important we look at all the issues, and bring them all together. I don’t see the point of a Cleansing Task Force being a separate matter.
“We are having people complaining about the city centre every single day. We need to do better.” He added: “We are not giving the impression that this is a crisis that needs to be resolved.”
The Chief Executive replied: “I take some of Councillor Long’s points on board, but not all of them. I have to say that any feeling that inertia has set in, in terms of dealing with city centre issues - that is in fact not the case.
“The cleanliness issues are not wholly owned by Belfast City Council, but due to the practices of some traders themselves. The volume of that has been turned right down. I have actually gone and visited the city centre on a number of occasions randomly just to make sure that the streets are clean, and I have to say I have been pleasantly impressed by what I have seen.
“Just yesterday I met with the PSNI and the Chamber of Commerce in terms of issues about vulnerable people and antisocial behaviour, and I have a meeting with the Chief Constable sometime early next month. I don’t think it is right to say there has been some level of inertia or that it hasn’t been treated with any level of urgency.
“I am happy to ensure that members are incorporated into this process. It is a bit cluttered because there is so much going on.
“If there are alternative arrangements that Councillor Long and others want to put in place I am happy to listen through group leaders or some alternative proposal put to me. But it is not right to say it hasn’t been treated with a level of urgency - it is.”
Councillor Long said: “I said it would appear we are not treating it with urgency. While you are meeting with the PSNI and others, my concern is that members aren’t involved at this stage, and it now looks like it won’t be until September (for the all party group.) I had hoped members could have been involved in the summer.
“I know there have been improvements in terms of cleansing, but that is only one area, where we have seven or eight areas in relation to the city centre.”
Sinn Féin Councillor Ciaran Beattie said: "I broadly agree with Michael in terms of bringing this together at some point. However the Cleansing Task Force has met twice now and I think the last meeting was very good, and very productive. We dealt solely with actions.
"I do feel we are starting to move, and we are turning a curve, and we see that with responses from businesses. The next stage of the task force is in neighbourhoods, and I do feel we should keep a specific focus on this, because we have fell behind, for a multitude of reasons, on the cleansing of this city. The worry is that we have too much, too soon, and lose focus on items we need urgently to deal with."
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