NI ASSEMBLY ELECTION ’16: N DOWN PREDICTION

The constituency of North Down faces some big changes in this upcoming Assembly election, particularly on the UUP ticket with the departure of longstanding MLA Leslie Cree.

He is replaced on the UUP ticket by Alan Chambers who ran as an Independent in 2011 and actually outpolled Mr Cree, accompanied by Daniel Allen and Carl McClean.

Alliance are running current DEL Minister Stephen Farry and Andrew Muir, a former Mayor of North Down.

The Green incumbent Steven Agnew is the party’s sole candidate and is joined by UKIP’s Bill Piper and Frank Shivers of the NI Conservatives.

The DUP have not confirmed their candidates but it is likely their three current MLA’s Alex Easton (who topped the poll in 2011), Peter Weir the DUP Chief Whip and Gordon Dunne will run again.

The DUP is the largest party in the new Ards and North Down Borough Council with 17 seats, shadowing the UUP’s 9, Alliance’s 7 and the Green Party’s two seats.  Its candidates polled 16,460 votes, which if repeated would safely elect three MLA’s.  In the 2011 council election for both North Down and Ards, the DUP’s tally was over 20,000.

The UUP polled over 8,000 votes in the local government election, which if replicated would secure two seats, though in the Assembly election the same year they secured only 3,000 votes and one seat, with Chambers, then an independent, narrowly missing out.

The Greens will be fighting to keep their leader in the sole seat for the party in Stormont.  Agnew is a popular MLA and has a relatively good profile.  Their Assembly and council vote is in the low 2,000’s and almost identical.  With their two councillors coming from Bangor West and Bangor Central, it will be crucial to hold the tide here particularly given both polled less than 500 votes.

PREDICTION

It is almost certain that the DUP will hold their three seats if the figures from the Council elections are replicated, though the UUP will be hot on its heels with Chambers back in the UUP fold.

The flag protests did little damage to Alliance here compared to Belfast, though Muir polled less than 1000 votes at Council level, so it is unlikely he will follow Farry into Parliament Buildings.

We predict that Steven Agnew will hold his seat, with a slightly reduced margin given the squeeze of Chambers and the possibility of a second UUP seat.

DUP X 3

UUP X 1 – Likely to be Chambers

AL X 1 – Farry

GP X 1 – Agnew

Possibility here of a second UUP seat, likely to be at the expense of the Greens if the momentum does materialise.

UKIP and NI Conservatives will not make any breakthroughs here.

 

 

‘ILLEGAL’ PARAMILITARY MEMORIALS: NO END IN SIGHT

The issue of ‘illegal’ paramilitary memorials or monuments has been a topic of intense debate in recent years, particularly from the DUP who have raised the issue umpteen times in the Assembly with successive DRD Ministers in charge of roads where many of the memorials sit.

The DUP’s Stephen Moutray MLA was a prolific voice as early as 2008, followed by Ian McCrea and Peter Weir, although the issue has petered off in recent times, replaced largely by the flags issue.

In responding to an Assembly question in 2013, the DRD Minister advised DUP MLA Alastair Ross that four ‘illegal’ roadside memorials existed (link here).  An older oral question to the then DRD Minister from DUP MLA David Simpson (link here) outlines that there was 31 ‘illegal’ memorials relating to the troubles in 2009.

BtP can now reveal that there are currently 33 ‘illegal’ monuments or memorials specifically relating to Republican or Loyalist paramilitaries.  In its response to BtP, the Department for Regional Development was at pains to stress that it did not support the erection of the memorials, but that:

“the Department reluctantly operates a ‘toleration policy’ regarding illegal roadside memorials.  Unless such structures pose a danger to road users, or there is clear indication that removing them would have widespread local support, no immediate action will generally be taken.”

We asked the Department to identify all illegal Republican or Loyalist memorials or monuments both on public land and private land throughout NI.  Four of the 33 identified by the Department are on private land, namely:

• Malachy Conlon Park, Cullaville outside Crossmaglen
• Tullynavall Road, Cullyhanna
• Kelly’s Road, Killeen (IRA)
• Edenappa Road, Jonesborough (IRA)

Two are erected on Hous Executive land, namely:

• Dorans Hill at Raymond Kelly Park, Newry (IRA)
• Derrbeg Estate, Newry (IRA)
• Derrybeg at junction of Camlough Road, Newry (IRA)

The vast majority of the memorials or monuments are situated in the Newry and Mourne Council area, 17 in total.

One is situated in Newry on the Loughgall Road, which we assume was in memory of Charles Neville, former UDR soldier killed by the Provisional IRA, but we cannot confirm.

Seven memorials are in the Fermanagh and Omagh West area.  These are at Cashel Road, Enniskillen  (not legible from Google Maps), Clonliff Road, Enniskillen (Republican), Eshnadarragh Road, Roslea (unknown), Main Street, Garrison (IRA), Swalinbar Road, Enniskillen (Republican), Meenatully Road (unknown) and Altawalk Cross, Eshnadarragh (IRA).

One unknown memorial is situated in Mid Ulster at Drumenny Road, with another in Annagher Road, Coalisland which is a Republican memorial.

Two are situated in the Derry and Strabane area, both IRA.  One is situated on the Mourne Bridge, Strabane, and the largest of all the illegal memorials is situated in Rossville Street, Derry in memoriam of the 1981 Hunger strike.

There is an IRA memorial on the Corick Road, Dungiven and another, unless the Department has made a mistake, at the same road in Limavady.

An IRA memorial garden stands in the carpark of the Ardboe Parish Hall, as well a memorial listed in Scribe Road, Bellaghy.  Another IRA plaque stands at Cloghog Road, Dungannon.

Given the small growth in the number of illegal memorials, it is unlikely that this very sensitive issue will be addressed soon.

What do you think, are illegal memorials acceptable? Should they be removed?

REVEALED: PSNI’S £5.7M AIRCRAFT BILL

Communities the length and breadth of NI will have encountered the helicopters of the PSNI Air Support Unit at some point in the last three years, and facebook in particular floods with complaints about hovering noise during deployments, but how much is all this costing?

BtP has been pestering the FOI team at PSNI Headquarters in recent weeks about their awful recording of Air Support unit data, and we can now reveal the final responses we have received, with some other questions still ‘up in the air’.

The Air Support Unit current has three aircraft, with the third purchased and operational since July 2013.  We asked three fairly simple questions on your behalf:

1. How many times each aircraft was deployed in each policing district in the last three years
2. Average cost of each deployment, and the cost of fuel used in each year by each aircraft
3. Maintenance costs for each aircraft including repairs in the last three years

Before we delve into the figures, a reminder of the PSNI policing districts (before they were changed recently) and a subsequent reminder that in 2015-16, the PSNI will have £40.4m less in their budget due to cuts.

You might think, given the issues of traffic and the size of the city, that Belfast (Districts A and B) would have used the aircraft more than any other area, but you’d be wrong.

Remember this?

The Army had to rely on helicopters to patrol South Armagh for fear of attacks on vehicles

In a very interesting development, we see that District E, which covers the vast majority of County Armagh, actually has by far the highest number of deployments – 2,120 between 2013-2015.  This begs the question, given the significant number of operations against dissident republican groups, and the reputation of the border county, particularly around South Armagh as ‘Bandit Country’ – are the PSNI following in the footsteps of the British Army and using aircraft as a substitute for road transport in the area for fear of attacks?

In terms of the cost of fuel (our second question), in a rather convoluted way the PSNI told us that for 2012-13 and 2013-14 the fuel costs also included items like landing fees, insurance and sundries.  Regardless, the costs are astronomical.

The PSNI tell us they do not keep the records of the average cost of each deployment.  All of this fuel (and some other costs where applicable) over the last three years, has cost you the taxpayer a total of £2,384,392.31 

Answering our third question (in a round about way), the PSNI could only give us the total cost for maintenance for the two aircraft it had in 2012-13 – it was £442,815.82.

For the other two years, the data is as follows:

In the three years that we asked for, the total maintenance costs for the Air Support unit aircraft is £3,347,534.12.

In total, fuel and maintenance, over the last three years the PSNI has spent a whopping £5.73 MILLION pounds on deploying and keeping their aircraft fleet maintained – all of this at a time front line policing is facing cuts.

One final point is to be made from our information – we asked a final question – ‘The date and purpose of any incursion into non-UK airspace (of PSNI aircraft) in the last three years’.

The PSNI refused to answer under grounds of ‘national security‘ – but did admit that yes, “on occasion PSNI do cross into Irish airspace but do not leave UK territory”.  We’ll leave that one with you.

Another BtP exclusive.

NI’S AUTISM ASSESSMENT SHAME

It is by sheer coincidence that Health Minister Simon Hamilton announced this week a further £2m funding for autism support services – a welcome development.  Coincidence because we at BtP have been digging for information in each of our Trusts for information for the past five weeks relating to the waiting times for autism assessments for both children and adults.  We weren’t expecting some of the figures that were uncovered.

The figures we received uncover what we can only describe as a shameful and utterly disgraceful legacy that has no doubt impacted families and the services to their loved ones over recent years.  Some of our figures show that in some cases, assessments took not weeks, not months, but years to be carried out.  For a modern country, that is unacceptable.

We asked each Trust to outline each year since 2011 the longest, shortest and average time it took to carry out both adult and child assessments.

The Western Trust which stretches from Derry to Fermanagh, is by far the worst performing Trust for autism assessments.  In one instance, it took almost four and a half years (1,621 days) for an adult to have an assessment undertaken – and this was not in the middle ages, it was in 2014.

The longest assessment for a child in the Western Trust was still over a year in 2011, at 424 days.

Whilst falling from the atrocious high between 2012-2014, the graph evidently demonstrates there is a dramatic climb back to over a year for assessments.

Strangely, the Trust could only give us the data we requested from 2014 for the adult assessments.

The Northern Trust also has a shameful record, with one case for a child’s assessment taking almost two years in 2011.  This waiting time improves in 2012-2013 but is again creeping up.  The record for adult assessments is as bad – almost two years waiting for one case in 2012.  However, it does have to be recognised that the Northern Trust in some cases has some of the shortest waiting times also, but this is likely to be due to emergency circumstances.

The Northern Trust could only give us up until the 2014-15 financial year end.

The Southern Trust has a relatively stable waiting time across both adult and child assessments – albeit still too long.

Again in another mindboggling decision, the Trust have only told us that an adult assessment currently take 30 months.  This is because, it states:

“The Adult ASD diagnostic service in the Southern Trust became operational again in September 2015 after a period when it was stood down due to the staffing difficulties.  The resource available to the Trust to deliver this service, with staff skilled in diagnosis, can only only provide one clinic per month.  Due to the complexities of the diagnostic process and the time required to complete the initial screening assessments, each clinic can only see 2 people per clinic.  Therefore the waiting time for a diagnostic assessment is currently 30 months and continues to grow with 62 people on the waiting list.”

We will let the people of the Southern Trust area who are in need of this service address that.

Those in the Belfast Trust area will be surprised to note that the information we got from every other Trust in one form or another was ‘not available in the format we requested’ from Belfast.

Alas, they do tell us that the current waiting times for a child assessment is 20 months for primary and 22 months for post-primary aged children.

The adult assessment waiting times are as bad, with the waiting list currently standing at 20 months.

The South Eastern Trust is another example of a horrendous waiting time for both adult and child assessments in 2012, dipping in 2013-14, and again beginning to rise.

Indeed, at 235 days, the waiting times for child assessments is at their highest ever in this area.  The longest wait for an adult assessment was in 2011 at 420 days, yet in 2015 with the most up to date figures, the longest wait stands at 392 days.

Amongst all of the data we have received, it is clear that whatever provision was put in place in the 2012-2013 period, times fell almost across the board, but now timescales for assessments are creeping back up, most likely in light of the austerity budget agreed by the Executive.  What is also quite worrying and frustrating in equal measure is the lack of uniform recording of waiting times across all the Trusts.

We understand wholeheartedly that the staff behind these services are doing their best, absolutely, it is those higher up the chain that need to look at these figures.  For any family out there who is perhaps fighting a case for their loved one and who think our figures might be of use, please do email us and we will be happy to provide them to you.

NI ASSEMBLY: MLA’S EATING WELL WHILST YOU SUFFER

As part of our #OperationExpose, we have undertaken a major piece of work to uncover the perks, practices and goings-on in Parliament Buildings that might raise more than a few eyebrows.

In December 2015, we submitted a Freedom of Information request regarding the Members Bar in Stormont.  We asked for:

“The cost of subsidising beverages, both alcoholic and non-alcoholic in the Members Bar

The cost of specific staffing for the Members Bar

A copy of the price list for the Members Bar.”

The response uncovered something very worrying for the taxpayer indeed.  In responding to the first part of our request, we spotted a very strange paragraph:

“Due to the nature of Assembly business and the requirement that services often be provided during unsocial sitting hours and for events, where the costs of providing such services exceeds the monies taken in, the extra cost is assumed by the Assembly. This is often referred to as operating cost”

If you are reading this and having trouble understanding its logic, effectively what the Assembly is saying is that as part of its Support Services contract, that manages catering, the Members Bar, restaurants etc within Stormont, that if any of these services make a loss, i.e. if it costs £5,000 a day to staff and prepare the food for the restaurant in Parliament Buildings, and the takings total £2,000, the Assembly – YOU the taxpayer, must provide the subsequent £3,000.

Being the ever-vigilant blog we are, we asked for an explanation of the cost of losses to the taxpayer – how much you have subsidised services in Stormont.  In response to our query on 1 February, the Assembly refused to release the information, saying:

“I wish to advise you that it is not possible to provide the breakdown of costs by type as this would result in divulging commercially sensitive information relating to the current Support Services contract that is operated by Compass.”

In other words, we can’t tell you because it may affect the future tendering process for the services – which may seem fair enough if you weren’t providing the backup monies for propping up these services!

What we have uncovered is the cost of catering provided in the Assembly during this mandate (2011-) and the figures will shock you.

It is key here to remember that during the 2014-15 period specifically, when there was a cost rise from the previous year, MLA’s were gearing up to agree devastating cuts to public services.

The total cost to you, the taxpayer during this Assembly mandate for catering and the staff that services the Assembly is an eye-watering £1,216,231.05.  This is comparable to the cost for the Scottish Parliament in the same timeframe – which has 120 MSP’s.

To summarise:

• The Assembly operates a Members bar, restaurant etc in Parliament Buildings, almost exclusively for the use of MLA’s
• If these services make a loss, you pick up the tab.
• MLA’s enjoy services that have cost over £1.2m in this mandate whilst cutting public services.

Another BtP exclusive.

 

RATES CRISIS: NEARLY 100,000 PROPERTIES IN DEBT

Figures showcasing the effect austerity, wage freezes and cuts to public service have on households and business is to be found everywhere recently.  However, figures BtP can reveal today show the shocking umber of properties – both domestic and business, that are behind with their rates and have been issued final demands for payment.

There is a total of 99,652 across NI in debt to Land and Property Services according to the latest figures released to us.  58,850 of those have received final notices for payment.

In Belfast, a whopping 21,564 properties are behind with their rates payments in 2013-14, the vast majority of these, 17,283 are domestic households.  Current figures suggest the situation is not much better.  21,146 properties are in debt to Land and Property Services in the Belfast City Council area, 16,791 of these being domestic properties.

What is more worrying, is the number of these properties that have been in debt for so long that final notices for payment have been issued.  The data, up to 31st March 2015, the last date of the rates payable year, show that a stunning 12,314 properties in Belfast are subject to a final notice.  Of these, a huge 9,600 are domestic properties – over half of those owing rates – a clear indication that people are struggling to pay their rates bills.

When we see that there has been a decrease of 674 across Belfast of total properties subject to a final payment notice since the previous year, there is not much improvement.

The top five worst affected areas:

Second to Belfast on the list is the Newry and Mourne area, with the latest figures revealing 7,256 properties, 6,334 of which are domestic, behind on their rates.  4,454 properties are subject to final notices, only 620 of those being businesses.

The old Derry City Council area comes a close third, with 6,550 properties behind with their bills, 5,519 of these domestic properties.  Interestingly however, Derry is above Newry when we look at business premises behind with their rates, 1,031 of which are behind compared to Newry’s 922.

This trend continues when we look at properties that have been been issued final notices.  Derry is the second worst area for businesses that have been sent red letters.  643 to Newry’s 620.  There are 3,919 properties in total way behind in their payments.

Austerity is biting hard.  Another BtP exclusive.

REMEMBER THE SOCIAL INVESTMENT FUND?

In May 2012, the Executive agreed to set aside £80m to ‘deliver social change. It aims to make life better for people living in targeted areas by reducing poverty, unemployment and physical deterioration’ – OFMDFM.

The UUP branded the fund a ‘DUP/SF slush fund’ in its response to the announcement of the fund, and the Alliance Party said it was was a ‘pet project’ of the big two Executive parties.

Jumping to the present, 89 projects have been identified by the Steering Groups set up across the region.  As part of the process to have an application approved, it must comply with what OFMDFM referred to as ‘the economic appraisal process’.  This is how the process is described on their own website listing successful projects:

List of all projects within the affordability limits

This list includes projects that are approved and are currently at Letter of Offer stage, these are the 23 projects announced by ministers on 10 February 2014.

The list also comprises the projects which are currently within the funding allocation of each zone but have not yet been approved by the economic appraisal process. It should be noted that these projects, with the status ‘awaiting approval’ are not guaranteed funding.

Seems fairly straightforward – if a project is marked ‘Approved’ on the list to be found here, then it will be funded – and it would only be marked ‘Approved’ if it has passed the economic appraisal process and is affordable.

However, BtP can reveal that this is not entirely the full picture.  We asked OFMDFM specifically in relation to capital projects, what was their status and are any of them projected to go over budget – which should not be possible, given the economic appraisal process.

In it’s response, OFMDFM tells us that one capital project has been completed and is operational, two have begun construction and a further two have appointed contractors – all good news.

But, in relation to costs – the Department tells us that ‘Robust costs for capital projects are not determined until the contractor is appointed’.  To date, four projects have appointed a contractor and already, one is over budget.

Cloona House in West Belfast is that project.  Now, if we look at the list of approved projects, which are to have undergone an economic appraisal process, here is what we see.

And there is the Cloona House project, marked Approved.

And who, pray tell, is a central figure in the project and a member of the Board?  Junior Minister in the Office of the First and Deputy First Minister, Jennifer McCann MLA (alongside the SDLP’s Cllr Brian Heading) as well as Jim McCarthy, a senior operator in Community Restorative Justice.

Will other capital projects that were supposed to have passed a process of scrutiny now go over budget and will the public be asked to pick up the tab?

NI ASSEMBLY: TAXPAYER FUNDED TRAVEL EXPOSED

Oh dear, oh dear.

In our latest piece we follow on from our exposé about how taxpayers are forking out for a cosy existence for our MLA’s and civil servants in Stormont.  We started by exposing the cost of heating in Parliament Buildings, whilst many in the community are forced to choose between heating or eating.  You can read that story here.

In this latest post, we uncover the cost of ferrying civil servants from one building in the Stormont Estate to another, all at your expense.

Annexe C, an office building which holds Assembly staff, is located less than half a mile from the doors of Parliament Buildings and a shuttle bus for staff only has been running between the two buildings for several years, ending in June 2015.

BtP can reveal that since 2011, £18,000 of taxpayers money has been used to usher Assembly staff within the Stormont Estate travelling a distance of less than half a mile, all whilst cuts to services such as the free travelcard for those 65+ is pondered, and public transport costs are on the rise for consumers.

To add insult to injury, we have also uncovered that MLA’s who are members of the North-South Inter-Parliamentary Association, which holds meetings both at Stormont and Leinster House, have also been ferried to the meetings on coaches costing a total of £1,000, but many of these members also claim mileage expenses for the trips from their home to Parliament Buildings.

OperationExpose continues.  Stay tuned.

Maze-Long Kesh: Saga Continues

On 15th August 2013, then-First Minister Peter Robinson stopped the development of the Maze-Long Kesh site in its tracks in a letter to DUP members, plunging the relationships at the top of the NI Executive into peril once more.

The 347-acre site of the former Maze Prison was boasted to host a £300m Peace and Reconciliation Centre, and up to 5,000 jobs.

In halting the proposed redevelopment, Mr Robinson said ‘it would be wrong to proceed with the Maze peace centre in the absence of a consensus about how it will operate’.

Since that decision by the DUP leader, any development of the site has been unceremoniously stopped and in October 2013 EU funding for the project was pulled and the £18.1m Stormont funding was divvied out between other projects, seemingly spelling the end of any movement on the site outside Lisburn.

Responding to questions in the Assembly at the time relating to the impasse, the Deputy First Minister commented that ‘No further development will take place until this is satisfactorily resolved’, and Sinn Fein firmly dug its heels in about what they deemed to be a breach of a commitment in the Programme for Government.

However, BtP can now reveal that the Maze-Long Kesh Development Corporation, which was tasked by OFMDFM to regenerate the site, is still up and running.

The Corporation, which does not even have a permanent website, and who issued their last press release in June 2013, had 15 staff prior to the DUP’s decision, and now has just over seven full time equivalent staff.

However, if indeed the DUP blocked any development on the site, and SF stuck to its position that no development would take place until the row was resolved, why have the Corporation been spending well over a million pounds on the site every year since?

In 2013-14, the Corporation spent £1.34 million, plus £363,000 on capital expenditure.  The year after, £1.31 million was spent, with £480,000 spent on capital works.  Spending up until December sat at £899,000, with capital spending at £281k, well on its way to equalling the previous years’ expenditure.

Even if we were to take salaries and running costs into consideration, it is obvious that other major expenses are being incurred at the site, despite the protestations of both the largest parties to the contrary.