Kilcooley Community Forum: New Decade for Development

FORUM

03 Feb, 2010

Diane Dodds (MEP) & SEUPB Meeting Community Delegation

Diane Dodds helping Kilcooley & North Down with Peace 3 problems.

At a previous meeting (19th November 2009) commitments were given by SEUPB (Special European Union Programmes Body) that funding from the Peace 3 Small Grants tranche would be distributed to groups in the North Down cluster within days. A two thousand pound withdrawal for evaluations from all small grant applications was also to be returned and reprofiled by grant holders. At this time Diane Dodds (MEP) was assured by the SEUPB that these matters would be dealt with rapidly to allow the community projects to “hit the ground running.”

At yesterday’s meeting (10 weeks after the commitments were given) Diane was not amused to hear that no community group in North Down or possibly the entire cluster had received any funds. In a meeting held with North Down Borough Council the previous Friday Diane was led to believe groups had indeed received finances – but this was proved at Tuesday’s meeting not to be the case. Alison Blayney from Kilcooley Women’s Centre showed a photocopy of an email received the previous afternoon suggesting a small payment would be paid into the relevant bank account within days. She told Diane and the others present this was “very convenient” that it was sent out the day before the meeting with SEUPB.

Mr Pat Colgan Chief Executive SEUPB said he wanted to hear all the issues of concern about North Down and he would ensure both he and his staff would do everything they could to deal with the problem. Mark Gordon from Kilcooley Community Forum said, “No disrespect Mr Colgan but we’ve heard this all before. At out last meeting with Howard Keery and Brenda Heggarty from your office, we were given assurances all would be put right. Well it hasn’t been. The entire Peace 3 programme in North Down is a shambles and we are sick to the back teeth listening to people like you telling us it will be sorted when it is not being done. This programme is about building communities and the actions of people you employ are destroying them.”

After a long list of complaints was discussed Diane Dodds then suggested a deadline by Friday to get some answers from SEUPB officials because it had been allowed to go on for too long and the people who were doing the work in the community were losing heart. She went on to say, “Having worked for years on the Lower Shankill and other areas of North Belfast we cannot afford to let these people down because they are on the coal face doing the hands on work, helping people.” Assurances were again given by Pat Colgan, Sean Henry and Howard Keery that they would look into the evident problems that exist in North Down and would be speaking with the North Down Chief Executive and Peace 3 Manager to find out why there were so many problems with both the Small and Strategic Grant application processes. Mark Gordon also raised the fact that the Community Safety Forum application to carry out community safety initiatives in North Down and further a field was ‘scotched’ simply because the PSNI had not submitted a letter of endorsement for the application EVEN THOUGH they had made it clear to the Peace 3 Manager at a meeting in the Town Hall on the 6^th January that subject to a few changes (agreed by the Forum who were in attendance) they would support the application. Pat Colgan said he would also look into this matter and advised a letter of complaint could be submitted and a request for an appeal against the decision. Mark Gordon said he personally would not be submitting any appeal to a flawed and incompetent process which can be influenced by people who are supposed to judge in a professional manner and not show partiality.

Numerous other issues were raised at the robust, forthright and ‘honest’ meeting. Diane Dodds also highlighted to the Kilcooley delegation that she was unhappy at a remark made on the Forum website suggesting they would play her off against another politician. She also said the Forum should have granted her the courtesy of letting her know in advance what was being said. Mark Gordon informed Mrs Dodds that the Forum does not have to justify why the article said what it did. He said, “Within the Forum there are individuals who thought nothing had been done about the Peace 3 problem since November 2009 and if nothing was to be achieved at today’s meeting then it may be worthwhile asking someone else to look into it. It was not a matter of playing one off the other.” He gave assurances there was no malice intended and emphasised how grateful Kilcooley Community Forum and North Down & Ards Intercommunity Forum were to Mrs Dodds and Trevor Cummings for their assistance.

The meeting ended cordially with each organisation accepting they would wait to hear the outcome from the SEUPB’s investigations.

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