The announcement of the new Belfast district rate by the council has been marred by an argument at City Hall over a bonfire diversionary fund.
The chamber at Belfast City Council on Wednesday was split with Sinn Féin and the unionist parties carrying through a 7.99 per cent rate for homeowners and businesses, one of the largest in recent years. Last year the district rate rise was 2.99 per cent, the year before was 1.92.
An unsuccessful Alliance proposal to reduce the proposed rate rise to 7.71 per cent by dropping the summer diversionary scheme - a programme directing young people away from antisocial and criminal behaviour over the summer months - led to bitter exchanges across the chamber.
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The City Solicitor Nora Largey said she believed the Alliance proposal by Councillor Michael Long was “incompetent” as it was unlikely that an equality report would be completed before the cut-off date of February 15th, by which time all Northern Ireland councils legally had to strike their new rates.
Councillor Long said it was “disgraceful” that he had been advised by a senior council officer that the proposal was competent four days before the meeting. Alliance nonetheless pushed ahead with proposals to reduce the rate and create a new working group to look at a new fund to replace the diversionary programme.
On a recorded vote the Alliance proposal fell, with 12 votes in support from Alliance and the Greens, and 43 against from the unionist parties, Sinn Féin, the SDLP and People Before Profit.
Councillor Long said the £500,000 spent on the diversionary fund was “a reasonable sum of money.” He said: “If I can cut anything in terms of rates I will do whatever I can. I specifically have issues that £272,000 was spent on performances of artists, DJs, stage management, security, marquees and events planning in the middle of a cost of living crisis.
“I don’t think that spending hundreds of thousands of pounds on DJs being brought into Belfast is any good for anybody. I can think of much better ways to spend our money in terms of our ratepayers.” He added: “Having DJs is not a credible strategy in tackling bonfires.”
Sinn Féin Councillor Ciaran Beattie said: “Alliance is proposing a 0.2 per cent decrease in the rate. That equates to a whopping, wait for it, 1.6 pence per house a week. Not even one pound a year.”
He added: “We don’t have the Executive for support now. And the reality is our staff, after going through the cost of living crisis and rising inflation, need a pay rise. There is no getting away from that.
“The only way we are getting that money is through the rate. We have services in the city which have taken a massive bump.
"A cleansing task force was agreed by all the parties, and it was agreed we need to clean the city centre and all the neighbourhoods. That needs to be paid for and there is nowhere else we are getting this money.”
He added: “Some of these funds have improved this city. They have reduced tension in times of the year when, if you look at it from a global perspective, this city was projected in a very negative light. At a time when the media portrays Belfast as not the place to go to.
"You can’t quantify the damage that does to the city in terms of reputation. Not to mention the cost of cleaning up behind bonfires.
“What this fund did was create positive events in the city, where thousands and thousands of young people, through Féile in particular in West Belfast, went and enjoyed themselves instead of getting into trouble. But some parties don’t see that.”
DUP Councillor George Dorrian said: “If those elected representatives actually attended the bonfires, and saw the change in atmosphere in East Belfast over the three years this programme has been running, they would see that not just bonfire builders but entire communities have bought into this.”
DUP Councillor Gareth Spratt said: “This money is spent in working class communities. It is spent on young people during long summer holidays to keep them out of trouble. Ultimately the (Alliance) proposal will cost this city money, because young people who are not occupied can get led into trouble.
“We saw tensions last year, I have already seen tensions in unionist and loyalist areas. We can only compound those tensions by removing this funding, and the good efforts made by this council to distract and take people away from trouble.”
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