Over the past few days people in Balmoral will have received my election postal communication (as well as many, many others).
If you’re not lucky enough to live in one of the ‘Niall Kelly No. 1′ areas here is your chance to see the postal communication.
I’ll try and get some of the other flyers up in the next day or so.
Niall Kelly Balmoral DEA Postal communication
Last year the SDLP team in South Belfast published our community newsletter In Touch.
At the weekend we received delivery of the Spring 2011 edition which is being delivered through letterboxes across the constituency right now and in the weeks ahead.
If you live in South Belfast expect to see it soon.
If not you can view it below.
As you will know potholes are a particular interest of mine.
The Fix My Street campaign was launched last year in an attempt to deal with issues such as graffiti, rubbish and potholes.
My party colleague Patsy McGlone is obviously as interested as I am on potholes and has asked ’the Minister for Regional Development how many claims have been brought against Roads Service for damage caused to vehicles as a result of the condition of roads, in each District Council area, in each of the last five years’.
The results are very interesting. Read the rest of this entry »
Possibly the cheesiest headline yet!
At last nights meeting of Belfast City Council’s Licensing Committee (which I chaired) the committee took a common sense approach to dealing with outdoor entertainment at the King’s Hall.
The King’s Hall complex is one of the premier exhibition and conference centres not just in Belfast but anywhere in Northern Ireland. It is a real asset to our community and has held so many memorable events in recent decades.
For anyone that lives in the Finaghy area just mention ‘Finaghy Railway Bridge’ to them and you will undoubtedly get a ten minute conversation about how the old red brick bridge was removed and replaced by ‘the green monstrosity’.
The old bridge was replaced by the green monstrosity as part of a necessary health and safety upgrade a few years back. The new bridge is an eyesore and both myself and local residents have complained to the Roads Service to carry out some work to make it look a bit nicer but they are digging their heels in and as of yet we have had no luck. Read the rest of this entry »
Tonight, for the second time in 8 days, Belfast City councillors will attempt to strike a district rate.
As readers will no doubt be aware our plans to strike the rate last Tuesday were blown out of the water when we were informed, at very short notice, that the Council would have to pay Land & Property Services (LPS) £3.5m in clawback, and not £600k as we were told in November.
The past 8 days has been quite hectic with numerous meetings between councillors and Council officials with staff from LPS and the Department of Finance & Personnel (DFP). Last Friday morning the Chief Executive of LPS met with the Council’s Policy and Resources committee and was given a real grilling.
Councillors have been presented with a number of options for the rate as are outlined here.
We meet at 6pm tonight in City Hall and I imagine the outcome will be known within half an hour.
Once we make out decision tonight the work must continue with both LPS and DFLP to ensure that a cock up like this never happens again.
Thursday 5th May will be a busy day with elections to both the Assembly and the 26 local councils. It will also be the day that the referendum on the Alternative Vote (AV) takes place.
A Yes vote in the referendum will see AV replace the First Past The Post (FTTP) electoral system for future Westminster elections. In the North we already use a different from of Proportional Representation (PR), the Single Transferable Vote (STV), for local government, Assembly and European elections. I’m a big fan of STV and would have preferred to see it introduced for Westminster elections but AV is a big improvement on FPTP. (On a side note its interesting to see Nick Clegg pushing so hard for AV considering he used to think it was a ‘miserable little comprimise’.)
This week I met with Stephen Glenn from the Yes To Fairer Votes Campaign to show my support for AV on 5th May and I hope you will be voting Yes on 5th May.
In the weeks ahead when SDLP canvassers in Balmoral are on your doorsteps we will be asking you to support our two Assembly candidates, our three council candidates (myself included) and for a change from FPTP to AV.
Of the three elections which will take place on 5th May the AV referendum will probably receive the least media coverage but it is a worthy campaign and, if successful, will have a real impact on future elections in Northern Ireland and Britain.
