MBW withdraws funding from Foundry Trust
by Dan O'Neill
Sinn Fein councillor Tom Hartley has described as `political', the
decision by Making Belfast Work (MBW) to withdraw funding from The
Foundry Regeneration Trust at the end of this month.
The Trust, established in 1993 to carry out local community
consultation in relation to the Springvale Development Scheme,
received a letter from MBW two days before Christmas stating that the
Springvale scheme was complete and the role of the Trust finished.
Hartley contesting the contents of the letter from MBW told AP/RN, ``I
am challenging this assertion in all it's hypocrisy. One has only to
look at the Springfield Road and the surrounding area to see that the
Springvale scheme is nowhere near completion.''
The Sinn Fein councillor continued, ``this decision was a purely
political one in the interests of civil servant's strategic plans as
opposed to the the residents needs. It is also interesting that when
the Foundry Regeneration Trust applied to carry out a community
evaluation of the impact of the Springvale scheme on the residents of
West Belfast they were informed by George Mackey of MBW that he would
not fund it as he he did not consider it to be appropriate at the
time.'
The community evaluation will be carried out in the coming weeks and
the Foundry Trust believe it will prove that the Springvale scheme
has not had the promised impact on residents of the area in terms of
employment, quality of life and in meeting housing needs.
The Trust has been at the fore in developing the community response
to the campus since 1993. A spokesperson for the Trust, Una
Gillespie, condemned the decision, saying, ``Mowlam laid down four
principles for the development of the campus, one of them being the
the direct and continued involvement of the community at all stages
of the campus's development. MBW's decision flies in the face of
this, by closing down the very mechanism for that consultation. There
is a huge amount of work to be done on this and the Trust has an
agreement with the West Belfast Partnership Board to represent and
the facilitate all of that work to the appropriate bodies.This is in
danger of being lost to the community.''
Gillespie added, ``only last week Mowlam was emphasising the amount of
work that the Trust would need to carry out on this element of
Springvale yet this week George Mackey tells us he has actively
intervened to ensure that representation is done through the
partnership Boards as opposed to the Trust.''
Meanwhile Una Gillespie of the Trust has condemned as sectarian, the
motives of senior Ulster University figures who plan to pull the plug
on the Springvale Educational Village, one of the main areas of work
involving the Trust.
A University source quoted in last weeks North Belfast News, claimed
that the Springvale project may be scrapped by forces traditionally
hostile to the campus on the grounds that it is too costly.
``There has always been an unreconstructed unionist rump within the
University ruling council opposed to spending money in North and West
Belfast, but they are now winning new friends in Mo Mowlam,'' said the
university source.
Mowlam gave the green light to the campus last August in a way which
was seen as a sop to republicans. But she never pledged one extra
penny of money to fund the project. The feeling is that the
university should review Springvale and its costs at a time when it
is becoming a political football.''
Ms Gillespie, said that while plans for the Village may not be
perfect at the moment it would be ``absolutely ridiculous'' to throw
out the project with such potential for North and West Belfast.
``This same faction has always been opposed to the notion of the
campus going to West Belfast for no other reason than sectarianism
and discrimination. These are people of the past who will soon have
to accept that things economically, politically and socially are
moving ahead without them'', she concluded.
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