A Co Tyrone councillor has branded comments made by other elected representatives on social media as “lies”, minutes of a Mid Ulster District Council committee meeting reveal.
According to a Council spokesperson, November’s meeting of Mid Ulster’s policy and resources committee was not live streamed, due to “technical IT difficulties” but the minutes of the meeting, which were ratified at a meeting of Council on Thursday, November 24, show Councillor Niamh Doris’ frustration with what had been written by other councillors.
Speaking at the committee meeting on Thursday, November 3, Cllr Doris said she had been made aware of comments on social media by other councillors indicating that funding had been withdrawn from the Gortgonis Health and Wellbeing Hub which had also put the proposed Gaelscoil in jeopardy.
READ MORE: Gortgonis: New Coalisland sports facilities facing 'major trouble' amid funding row
According to the minutes of the meeting, Cllr Doris, refuted these statements and said there were “lies”.
Cllr Doris went on to say: “DfC through neighbourhood renewal never commit money more than a year ahead of time.
“There is no doubt, the project is taking a long time to be sorted but constituents should be aware that this is due to projects having to be shovel ready.
“For example the pitches at Brackaville and Dungannon United Youth and more recently, the works at Thomas Clarkes have all been funded through neighbourhood renewal because they were in a shovel-ready state.”
The minutes also show she went on to blame former infrastructure minister and SDLP MLA, Nichola Mallon for a failure to deliver a right-hand turning lane at the site of the proposed development before accusing other councillors of causing “unnecessary panic” with their messaging.
“The message that went out to the community by some councillors on their social media pages caused unnecessary panic for the service users, some of which have special needs, the local residents and of course, the Gaelscoil,” said Cllr Doris.
The Sinn Fein councillor also called on those councillors she claimed “did not act with honesty” to “apologise for their social media statements”.
“It is important for community confidence in Council that councillors who made false accusations apologise for them so they can be open and honest with the public,” she said.
Council’s strategic director of communities and place, Ryan Black, advised the chamber discussions around this matter were best held behind closed doors in the confidential business where a report was being brought for members’ consideration.
Speaking after the meeting and attempting to explain why it was not live streamed for the public to view, a Council spokesperson said a “technical ICT issue” was to blame.
“Unfortunately there was a technical ICT issue that meant the recording only worked for several minutes at the end and this has now been removed,” said the spokesperson.
“Due to the same technical issue, we will be unable to upload a recording of the policy and resources committee meeting.”
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