5 Local Government activities
103. The Government believes that while "actions
to promote good relations between and within communities in Northern
Ireland will be driven forward by Government", it is action
at local level that will transform local communities. To achieve
that goal, the Minister told us that :
"The Government should develop an enhanced,
permanent programme for the promotion of good relations through
district councils. I have it in mind that each council should
be required to prepare, as part of its community planning process,
a good relations action plan that should be submitted to the Government.
There are attractions in the model of a good relations fund and
committee, developed by Belfast City Council… Good community
relations policy, and its outworking, is the search for the practical
foundations of trust between all people in Northern Ireland who
have been divided on the basis of perceived political, cultural,
religious or other ethnic background."[163]
104. We
thoroughly endorse the Government's emphasis on the important
role which local authorities have in the promotion of community
harmony and driving out hate crime. Without the collaboration
of local authorities it is difficult to see how any measures promoted
by the central Government can succeed.
105. We heard evidence about three district council
areas: Strabane, Down, and Belfast in which each council has adopted
a pragmatic approach to using community relations (or 'good relations')
programmes. The recent establishment of community safety partnerships
with common boundaries to the 26 district councils also provide
a local focus for this work. The main emphasis to date has been
on tackling sectarianism. The Good Relations Manager of Belfast
City Council pointed to the twenty seven so-called peace walls,
or peace lines[164],
as the physical symbol of the challenge of sectarianism.
106. The councils provided us with several examples
of good practice:
- Strabane District Council's
"Us and Them Too" training programmes aimed at developing
an understanding of race, disability and sexual orientation to
community organisations [165]
- Down District Council's annual cross-community
St Patrick's Day parade which includes invited groups from ethnic
backgrounds. This allows minority ethnic communities to showcase
and celebrate their culture to a wide audience [166]
- Belfast City Council's innovative model of a
Good Relations Unit which co-ordinates and integrates work on
the promotion of equality of opportunity with its development
work on good relations; and the Council's public condemnation
at every opportunity of all manifestations of racism, in whatever
form and wherever occurring in Belfast.[167]
- Two specific projects supported by Belfast City
Council's Good Relations Fund are: Interaction Belfast which builds
cultural awareness and, through a cross-community forum, tackles
contentious issues such as flags, murals and bonfires; and Roden
Street Development Group which has developed a project involving
the Filipino community, Northern Ireland Council for Ethnic Minorities
and a Turkish Group. [168]
- Ballymena Borough Council's pilot scheme to facilitate
'safe space' discussions which addresses extremely contentious
issues in two key areas of the town (Harryville and Fisherwick).
107. Despite the success of individual projects,
evidence of increasing patterns of community polarisation, and
a rising level of hate crime means that efforts will need to be
redoubled if positive results are to be drawn from the Government's
community relations policy. It was disheartening to be told by
community relations officers that the policy "has not been
terribly successful."[169]
It is clear from evidence we received that, despite recently
awakening to the dangers of race and homophobic hate crime, the
authorities need to continue to combat the sectarian attacks which
remain a blight on the communities of Northern Ireland.[170]
108. The Committee
welcomes the work of local authorities to promote the quality
of community life through community relations programmes directed
against sectarianism. Many of these programmes are small scale
but have a disproportionately large and positive impact. We commend
those local authority officers who are responsible for putting
them into practice and call on their councils to do all in their
power to support and further their efforts. It is vital that these
programmes continue, and that funding for them is secure. We look
to the Government to ensure that this is the case.
163 Northern Ireland Grand Committee, 17th
June 2004: Column 023 Back
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