Alliance Quits Shared Future Working Group

The Alliance Party has pulled out of "shared future" talks, saying members have "lost faith" in the process.

Leader David Ford said the DUP and Sinn Fein had tried to create "an illusion" of being "serious" about building a shared future.

He said there had not been enough commitment to progress on integrated education, shared housing or illegal flags.

The process turned sour in the last two weeks when the DUP accused Alliance of missing meetings.

But Mr Ford said his party had "participated fully, attending every one of the meetings of the group".

He argued that redevelopment plans for Girdwood former army barracks in north Belfast had missed the chance to create shared housing, describing it as a "a classic example" of maintaining segregation.

Mr Ford has now written to the First Minister Peter Robinson and Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness to notify them that his party is withdrawing from the five-party working group.

He wrote: "The current approach within the group, of seeking to agree a strategy that everyone can sign up to on the basis that it makes little change to the status quo, is not one that we will participate in any longer, as it holds out no prospect of delivering the change which the people of Northern Ireland deserve and desire."

(NE)