Belfast's Holyland Residents To Meet With Justice Minister

A delegation from the Holyland area of Belfast will meet Justice Minister David Ford to discuss serious anti-social behaviour in the area.

The 'Holyland' is home to a large student population and according to the Belfast Holyland Regeneration Association, although some groups hailed St Patrick’s Day as a success, it was still an "unpleasant" experience for residents.

The association is worried that the summer months will bring more outside drinking and anti-social behaviour.

Spokesman for the BHRA, Ray Farley, will lead the delegation.

He said there was "constant bad behaviour" and commented: "Take a street with 80 houses with 40 on each side - if a group of people decide to drink out the front of each of these houses then it doesn't take long before it starts to get noisy. It then spills out onto the streets and overwhelms the police and wardens."

There were eight arrests made on St Patrick's Day in the area this year. Disorderly behaviour, criminal damage, assault and a public order offence were the arresting offences.

In 2009, riot police were called to Carmel Street in the Holyland area after drunken youths vandalised a car, before throwing cans and bottles at officers.

A total of 19 people were arrested, two members of the force injured and over £35,000 of damage was caused.

Farley added: "What happened two years ago is really held up as the bench mark, which was that there was riot. From what I can gather, if there is not a riot then it is looked on as being quite a successful day, as far as the authorities are concerned."

Mr Farley said although this year's celebrations were a lot quieter than in previous years, the area was still left in an "awful mess".

"One of the problems is that there are too many people in the area. What we would like is the justice minister to maybe look at a ban on people drinking in their front gardens at certain times of the year. There is also talk about setting up a disorder zone which would allow extra powers to the PSNI, perhaps to close off licenses or to actually shepherd people out and really ban alcohol abuse in some areas."

Mr Farley said the ongoing anti-social problems in the Holyland are "very frustrating" for people who live there.

"We do feel as if we have been going round and round in circles for years. It just goes on constantly night after night."

(JG/GK)