A Cannes property conference Belfast Council is to attend to next year has been branded "little more than a party".
Green Party Councillor Áine Groogan made the comment during a debate over who should attend the MPIM event in the south of France in 2023.
It was agreed that council reps will go to the 2023 event, at ratepayers' expense, despite Green Party and People Before Profit councillors urging City Hall to boycott the event. Details on the scale of any City Hall delegations will be decided at a later date.
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Government representatives, property groups, investors, construction firms and architects head to the South of France for MIPIM, billed as “The world's leading property market" every year. But in 2018 the event became mired in controversy, with allegations of sexism, drunken behaviour and even of prostitutes being at the event. Organisers at the time MIPIM rejected the claim, saying "Under no circumstances does MIPIM register prostitutes".
The event, considered by many to be male dominated, has been the subject of several complaints by women who say they were been the victims of sexist abuse, misogyny and discrimination. In 2018 Tamsie Thomson, director of the London Festival of Architecture, launched the 'Elephant' Campaign, to confront exploitation in the property and construction industries.
That year Belfast Council spent £60,000 sending seven officials to the four-day event in March. MIPIM have denied any involvement of employment of sex workers at the conference.
Green Party Councillor Áine Groogan told the chamber at the full meeting of Belfast Council this week: “It is disappointing, as it seems to be business as usual after Covid - I thought we might have taken stock about how we do business and how we move forward as a society, but it doesn’t really seem to have gotten there.
“Sustainable development and growth cannot just be buzzwords to us. I have yet to be convinced on the merits of MIPIM, and what it delivers to the city, because so far what I have seen it delivering is not an awful lot. And what it has delivered is not very positive.”
She added: “I have yet to be convinced, we have been told we would be brought reports in terms of what the benefits are to the people of Belfast, and I don’t see any. If you look at the reports of MIPIM in 2022 it seems very little has changed. It is a very male dominated, wealth-driven jaunt in the South of France, and the behaviour at it is not something this city or this council should be associated with.”
She called it “little more than a party.” She added: “I find it quite destructive for this city. We need to do better, we need to put the people of Belfast first, protect our built heritage. We need development, yes, and I would never say otherwise, but not all development is good development, and hocking our city to the highest bidder has not ended well for this place in the past.”
Her proposal that the council have no involvement with the MIPIM conference next year fell, with eight votes in support from the Greens and People Before Profit, 25 against, and 18 Sinn Féin votes abstaining.
Sinn Féin Councillor Ryan Murphy said: “Our party put forward a proposal that we wouldn’t attend MIPIM in the political sense, where there would be no party representatives, but where the council would be corporately represented by staff.
“People will know we have raised reservations about MIPIM and the council’s attendance at it, and what value and benefit that it brings to the city. From then, over the past couple of years, we have had reports coming back to the committee from council officers about the need for the council to be represented there.
“We heard that again at committee, represented to us by the Renewed Ambition Partnership. The report outlines there are other council areas interested in going, and for that reason it is why we suggested we would be happy for council officers to attend and for them to report back exactly the engagements they had out there, and what value they felt it could bring to the city going forward.”
His proposal for officers and not elected representatives to attend the conference fell, with 19 votes in support and 32 against.
People Before Profit Councillor Fiona Ferguson said: “I think this is totally out of step with the type of attitude this council claims to adopt on issues like the cost of living, or whatever else. It’s all the right words - then it’s little junkets to France. And it makes no sense.” She suggested no more association with MIPIM unless there was a political decision to do so. She said the proposal to send council officers rather than elected representatives was “laughable.”
UUP Councillor Carole Howard said: “MIPIM is hugely successful and has brought a lot to this city. The other thing I take exception to is it being a male dominated. One year when I was Deputy Chair of the committee it was an all female representation from this council that went, including the Chief Executive, and the Chair of the Committee.”
SDLP Councillor Carl Whyte said: “My goodness it sounds like Mordor, or somewhere where really bad things happen, somewhere where no one would ever wish to go in their entire lives. I’ve been to the South of France quite a few times and I don’t remember seeing this hell hole that is being talked about tonight.
“Let’s be very clear, there is no investment of significant level in this city. There are no banks on the square that are going to put money into this city, there are no massive investment firms that are coming here to our rescue, to do all the things the Green Party and People Before Profit say that we need, but who have no plan to make that happen.
“Whether politicians are sent or not, there are different views on that. In other conferences in cities around the world it is elected representatives that are doing the sell, it is elected representatives that are pitching. So when our officials would be going to MIPIM, I want people to remember, they are going to be pitching against elected mayors from cities across Europe and the world - and that just does not have the same ring to it.
“What I have heard tonight absolutely flabbergasts me. We are not sitting here in this building with hundreds of cranes as you walk out. We are in dire need of institutional investment - from the type of people that go to MIPIM.”
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