Other News In Brief

Storybox NI Marks Successful First Year With Charity Donation

Storybox NI has announced that it will mark its first birthday this month with a donation to a local women's centre to deliver mental health services.

Storybox NI sells tailored consumer and corporate gift boxes, made up of goods from a range of local social enterprises and independent businesses, including Suki Tea, Loaf Pottery, Bolster Community and Refuge Chocolate NI.

Belfast City Council supported owner Rachel McIlgorm to set up her social enterprise during the pandemic. Councillor Ryan Murphy, Chair of Belfast City Council's City Growth and Regeneration Committee said: "Our enterprise team was delighted to support Rachel and Storybox NI every step of the way on her journey to set up her company. Rachel first of all signed up for our free programme which supports people setting up social enterprises and co-operatives, and then progressed on to the Go For It programme and with help from an expert advisor created a business plan. She then had an extra boost of one-to-one specialist mentoring through the Kickstart programme. It's really important to us to support enterprise in the city – and ventures such as Storybox NI are really proving their worth by giving back to the communities that they're based in."

Rachel is now reflecting on a successful first year: "We're delighted to be starting as we mean to go on, not only supporting and raising awareness of social enterprises and local businesses by promoting gifts with purpose, but also by giving back to the community. The more gift boxes we sell, the more we'll be able to increase these donations. I've always had a passion for local businesses driven by a social, humanitarian or environmental purpose. During the pandemic, I couldn't stop thinking about their challenges, so I founded Storybox NI as an online platform to showcase their goods, amplify their causes and make it easier for customers to purchase #GiftsWithPurpose in a box. 

"For me, social enterprise is the future of business. At Storybox NI, our social purpose is to raise awareness of social enterprises and local businesses and to provide another sales channel by purchasing and distributing their products in gift combinations.  We even had the chance to showcase these #GiftsWithPurpose in the US earlier this year when we worked to supply the NI Bureau in Washington DC. I've had amazing support – the team's passion shines through in the quality of advice they provide. They've been with me from the start – and haven't just disappeared after I've finished the programmes. To have access to this level of expertise, resources and contacts – at no cost - is incredible. Before I started, I had no idea of the level or quality of free support available to micro and small organisations from Belfast City Council. The mentors and advisors get just as excited about the opportunity as you do, which makes you feel like you have a team of cheerleaders. But even more importantly, they bring a wealth of real-life experience to the table. 

"I've also been awarded £4,000 from Belfast City Council's Go Social incentive fund and that's allowed me to develop branded boxes, with a new sleeve design celebrating #Local, in collaboration with Belfast based artist Danni Simpson. This will help reduce overheads, increase efficiency and allow us to cater for larger orders. And of course, less packaging is good news for the environment. I'm enhancing the Storybox NI website and we're always on the look-out for new social enterprises and local independent businesses to support. And we're fulfilling the first of what I hope will be many large export orders."

UUP Welcomes Selection Of Omagh For New Regional Day Procedure Centre

The UUP have welcomed the announcement that Omagh has been selected as the location for Northern Ireland's next Regional Day Procedure Centre.

Welcoming the Health Minister's announcement, Councillor Matthew Bell said: "I'm delighted that Omagh Hospital and Primary Care Complex has been chosen to become Northern Ireland's second day procedure centre. In effect that means it has now become a ring-fenced hub for the delivery of day case surgical procedures, supporting greater numbers of patients both locally from the Western Trust as well as from right across Northern Ireland.

"Despite all the political rhetoric from some parties and the ongoing stalemate after the most recent election, the Ulster Unionist Party is fully committed to tackling the unacceptable waiting lists. When the Health Minister Robin Swann published a five year roadmap last year he said the establishment of new day procedure centres would be one of the issues taken forward and I'm delighted that that has now come to fruition and Omagh has been selected.

"The hospital already delivers a wide range of primary, secondary and community care services. It has 3 state of the art day procedure operating theatres and 22 recovery beds – it's widely considered one of Northern Ireland's surgical jewels in the crown. It currently provides day procedures for WHSCT patients across a range of specialties including general surgery, urology and ophthalmology.  It is currently funded for 23 day procedure sessions per week, yet after Robin Swann asked all Health Trusts to ensure that they are fully utilising every square inch of capacity an additional 7 sessions a week are now going to be funded and delivered.

"These additional lists are especially going to focus on urology and general surgery – two specialities with some of the longest waits across Northern Ireland. According to the Minister this means an extra 1,750 patients across these specialities will be treated per year when fully implemented. These will include many red flag cancer and other time critical cases. In addition, 10 regional endoscopy sessions at Omagh Hospital will see an extra 3,000 patients.

"This is a real display of confidence in the hospital and all the staff that work within it. Becoming only the second such centre in Northern Ireland, after the first was announced in the Lagan Valley Hospital in 2020, I'm thrilled that Omagh Hospital will now be taking on an even greater role in the overall delivery of health care here."

Environmental Action Needed 'Now More Than Ever' – Greens

The Green Party NI has said that environmental action is needed "now more than ever", following the publication of the Northern Ireland environmental statistics report.

Stating that the report reveals NI's "shamefully poor record on environmental protection continues", Green Party NI Deputy Leader Mal O'Hara said: "This report has shown that our total greenhouse gas emissions accounted for 5 per cent of the UK total, higher than our population share of 3 per cent. It also shows the urgent need for an Independent Environmental Protection Agency, and for the implementation of the recently passed net-zero Climate Change Act as a start.

"Northern Ireland is already the twelfth worst region in the world for biodiversity loss, and these figures indicate that the situation is not improving. Only 55% of features in our protected areas were in a 'favourable' condition. 36% of our legally protected land and water sites were in an unfavourable condition in 2021/2022, our bird populations have been in decline since 2005, just over half of our inshore coastal areas were deemed to be in a 'good' or 'better' ecological state and recycling rates are down (from 51.9% in 2019/20 to 50/9% in 2021/22).

"The policies of the last Executives, have failed. We have no Air Quality Strategy, no Waste Strategy, no Ammonia Strategy and an unambitious Environment Strategy.

"Urgent action must be taken to protect our environment and tackle climate and biodiversity breakdown."