Over £600,000 Secured To Rejuvenate And Refresh Outdoor Spaces

Belfast City Council has announced the allocation of more than £600,000 for the next phase of its business cluster and community grant scheme.

Capital grants between £10k-£25k will be awarded for environmental improvement projects that will rejuvenate and refresh outdoor spaces.

Councillor Ryan Murphy, Chair of Belfast City Council's City Growth and Regeneration Committee, said: "It's great to be able to provide additional funding for another round of Business cluster and community grants. Initially, the programme allowed us to give vital support to businesses and communities during the challenges of the pandemic, enabling them to use outdoor space and helping them to operate safely.

"We've seen diverse, innovative projects delivered across the city which are very much in line with our Bolder Vision; which is all about creating a more attractive, accessible, safer and more vibrant city with lively, green streets which promote wellbeing and prioritise walking, wheeling, cycling and public transport.

"It's been impressive to see how people can re-imagine spaces to get the best use out of them and how unused land can be transformed. We're really keen to see a new round of proposals that will deliver benefits for communities and businesses right across Belfast."

The Business cluster and community grant scheme first opened in December 2020 providing businesses and communities with the opportunity to avail of funding to deliver physical interventions and streetscape improvements.

£1.1 million was provided to 51 groups and business organisations, facilitating the delivery of a wide range of environmental programmes including community gardens, shop front improvements, lighting schemes and meanwhile uses for gap sites.

Groups and partnerships should visit www.belfastcity.gov.uk/funding for more information and email bccgp@belfastcity.gov.uk to request an application form and guidance notes.

The scheme opens for applications on November 7 and will close on December 19, 2022. Grants will be awarded on a first-come first-served basis. Previous Business cluster and community grant recipients are not eligible to apply.

UUP Leader Accuses SF Of 'Whitewashing' IRA Murders

Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) Leader, Doug Beattie, has accused Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald of "whitewashing of the IRA's part in the butchering of men, women and children".

Mr Beattie said: "The weekend comments from Mary Lou McDonald that there is 'no comparison' between IRA violence and gangland violence has rightly been rejected, as has her claim that Jonathan Dowdall would not have been "anywhere near" Sinn Fein had her party known he was involved in any form of criminality.

"The whitewashing of the IRA's part in the butchering of men, women and children and the continual harm and hurt visited on families is appalling and what we are witnessing is the Disneyfication of murder, seeking to romanticise brutal crimes.

"Mary Lou McDonald is deluded if she thinks that IRA atrocities such as the Abercorn, Claudy, La Mon or Enniskillen were not crimes. The shooting of Angela Gallagher, Jean McConville and Mary Travers – to name but a few - are crimes that would shame the devil, but not it would seem Sinn Fein.

"Gun attacks by drug gangs are no different to gun attacks by the IRA, because both are the work of illegal criminal gangs.

"I fully understand that Sinn Fein has a vested interest in trying to sanitise the bloody past of the IRA, but they face some inconvenient facts in the process. The first is that that 60 per cent of Troubles related deaths were the work of republican terrorists. The second is that the IRA in supposedly defending the Catholic population, killed more Catholics than all the other actors combined.

"Sinn Fein may attempt to pretend that black is white but they should not be surprised when they are challenged every step of the way by those for whom the truth is not a stranger."

Alliance Raise Concerns Of Political Impact On Cancer Screenings

Alliance Health Spokesperson Paula Bradshaw has warned that ongoing inaction in addressing the lag in screening for bowel and cervical cancer, as well as outdated screening methods, in Northern Ireland will inevitably cost lives.

The comments follow a recent BBC News NI report detailing how services in Northern Ireland compare to what’s offered across the rest of the UK, particularly in terms of the minimum age range invited for screenings and the techniques used to carry them out. For example, in the case of bowel cancer screening being offered in NI to those between the ages of 60 and 74, but similar screening being carried out in Scotland from 50 years old.

Cervical screening and smear testing are also areas of concern, with Northern Ireland still using a less sensitive testing method, cytology, to the HPV primary screening carried out in England, Scotland and Wales, widely regarded as being a more sensitive test.

Paula has said: "The only people being punished by the failure to set up an Executive in Northern Ireland are the people of Northern Ireland, and the fact that we continue to lag behind the rest of the UK on bowel and cervical cancer screening is just another example of certain parties’ political aims taking precedence over people’s lives.

"We know from experience that earlier cancer screening is an essential part of early intervention, and undoubtedly saves lives. Failing to provide the most up-to-date testing and to ensure tests are carried out at the earliest reasonable age will, therefore, inevitably cost lives. It is as simple as that.

"This is another issue where transformation and progress has not been fully embraced, and where deadlock at Stormont has meant that there can be no movement because a budget is required but no budget can be delivered without an Executive.

"Ultimately, the Health Service is crumbling in plain sight while the political institutions charged with managing it are blocked from operating. That is the real penalty for political irresponsibility, and sadly it is being paid by people and families up and down Northern Ireland."