Other News In Brief

Work To Start On £225,000 Carrickfergus Road Resurfacing Scheme

Up to £225,000 is being invested for a road resurfacing scheme in Carrickfergus.

Work to repair around 1km on the North Road will start on Monday, 13 August.

The scheme, which stretches from the Middle Road/Marshallstown Road to Prince Andrew Way, will deliver significant improvements to both the structural integrity and surface of the road.

To carry out the works safely, temporary traffic lights will be in operation on weekdays from 9.15 am onwards. Full road closures will then be in place as follows;

• 6am 18 August until 6am 20 August

• 6am 25 August 6am 27 August

The project is scheduled for completion at the end of August.

Number Of People On Housing List Must Act As A Wake Up Call - SDLP

SDLP Deputy Leader Nichola Mallon MLA has said the plight of almost 21,000 children and young people on the housing waiting list must act as a wake up call and if their distress is not reason enough for the DUP and Sinn Féin to sit down and try to overcome their differences, then they must explain to these children why.

The MLA for North Belfast said: "Affordable, suitable and safe housing is a right that should be enjoyed by every citizen. However, as recent figures obtained by PPR show, it is a right denied to over 20,000 children with 14,000 of those forced to live in housing stress.

"No one is pretending the housing crisis didn’t exist before the Assembly was collapsed 18 months ago. Neither should we pretend or fall into the fallacy that the crisis couldn't be tackled even if we had a functioning Executive and Assembly. The truth is that the ongoing political vacuum is deepening the housing crisis.

"With an Executive and Assembly we could increase the supply of affordable and social housing, we could reform the private rented sector and the housing allocation system. With housing as a clear outcome in the program for government as the SDLP has consistently argued for, we could tackle the current crisis and future proof our housing system for the next generation."

SF Registers Objections Over Paisley Petition Centres

A Sinn Féin delegation has registered its objections to the use of just three centres with limited opening hours for people to sign the Recall Petition to unseat North Antrim MP Ian Paisley.

Commenting after meeting with the Electoral Office, North Antrim MLA Philip McGuigan said more must be done to ensure the democratic process is not subverted.

He said: "A delegation including myself and Sinn Féin MP Francie Molloy registered our objection to the fact that the Electoral Office has decided to only open three centres with limited opening hours for the recall petition.

"This is simply not good enough.

"It greatly reduces people's ability to reject the disgraceful behaviour of Ian Paisley in accepting lavish family holidays from the Sri Lankan government before lobbying against a UN investigation into war crimes and human rights abuses.

"North Antrim is a large constituency and Sinn Féin proposed that the recall petition should be available in as many as ten local government offices."

(CD)