East Belfast Councillor challenged to justify library closures

Jim Rodgers (Right), the Ulster Unionist Party councillor for East Belfast and a board member of the Northern Ireland Library Authority was today challenged to “publicly justify the closure of local libraries” proposed in a current consultation paper. Tommy Black, East Belfast Socialist Party representative said “Eleven councillors from the four main political parties are on the board of the Library Authority which is proposing the closure of fifteen libraries throughout Belfast, including six in East Belfast.”  

“The people of East Belfast are entitled to know why Cllr Rodgers has remained silent on the threat to close our libraries. These facilities not only provide the public with books but also internet access and meeting rooms for the community. The Socialist Party is challenging Cllr Rodgers as a member of the board of NI Library Authority to publicly justify the closure of local libraries.”

Mr. Black added “The so-called consultation carried out by the Library Authority is nothing but a sham exercise. There will be no genuine consultation with local communities. For instance, the Library Authority has told Socialist Party members that there will be no meeting for local residents in Ballyhackamore because it is an “un-neutral” location!”

“There is major opposition to any closure of libraries. A campaign based in the communities can fight to save all library services. People power can stop the closures.”

 

Total
0
Shares
Previous Article

Joe Higgins MEP call for Halifax to be taken into Public Ownership

Next Article

Lebanese socialist to speak at Queen's

Related Posts

South: Mass non-payment campaign needed to defeat household tax

‘It’s only €2 per week.’ Minister for the Environment, Phil Hogan, was speaking on RTE’s Six One News on Tuesday about the new Household Tax which the Fine Gael/Labour Party Government had agreed at Cabinet earlier in the day. Then in that interview of a few minutes he repeated four more times, ‘It’s only €2 a week.’ Had Hamlet been listening, he might have declared, ‘The Minister doth protest too much.’

East Belfast riots: Stop ALL Sectarian attacks

Only united working class action can prevent further attacks
Rioting in east Belfast on Monday 20th and Tuesday 21st June – the worst in recent years - did not appear from a blue sky. Throughout the ‘Troubles’, the interface between the Catholic Short Strand and Protestant Lower Newtownards Road has been the scene of sporadic sectarian violence emanating from both communities. In recent months, there has been an increasing number of attacks on homes in both areas and this has ratcheted up sectarian tensions. The weekend of the 18th and 19th June was particularly tense, with attacks on homes in both communities intensifying and a young Protestant woman being hit by a brick thrown from the Short Strand. The UVF [Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) - a loyalist paramilitary organisation] used this incident to organise hundreds of young people from across east Belfast to join them in an orchestrated attack on the Short Strand.

Joe Higgins MEP column

The following is a quote from an article in The Sunday Business Post (February 14, 2010): "Dublin based Glas Securities said that any decision by an Irish bank to default on subordinated debt would, depending on the documentation and specific characteristics of individual bonds, result in breaches of so called ‘cross default’ provisions attached to the bank’s senior unsecured paper. ‘This would be quite clearly a ‘no-go area’ for Irish banks’", according to Jim Ryan, Managing Director of Glas.