These figures prove the City Hospital’s A&E is sorely missed.

What would happen if the Royal A&E was forced to close due to some sort of outbreak, even just for 24 hours to be deep cleaned? Where would that leave people? The Royal’s A&E is also a temporary building and I had stressed that the City shouldn’t have closed until at least the new RVH Critical Care build was complete.

Last week, Scotland’s First Minister Alex Salmond set out the question he intends to ask voters in a referendum on Scottish independence in a public consultation paper.

The public consultation paper – Your Scotland Your Referendum – states that Scots would be asked: “Do you agree that Scotland should be an independent country?”. But is that really the question? Is it simply about whether or not Scotland should be an independent country? Or is it whether or not Scotland should withdraw from national and international politics, in favour of an isolationism and nationalism?

In the event that Scotland would leave the UK, it would not only be leaving a country, but also the United Nations Security Council, G7, G8, G20, NATO, the Council of Europe, and the European Union. Seeking to selfishly better itself, rather than others.

In 1707 and 1801, we set aside selfish nationalism to form a family to better ourselves and others and, like any family, we would not be the people we are today, if it was not for Scotland.

Simply put; we are better together, we have ties of culture and language and we have shared adversity and prosperity. We have faced down nationalism many times before this:

• Together we fought and faced down one of the most evil exponents of nationalism in the form of fascism in World War II.
• Together, we have fought and faced down violent nationalism.
• And together we will face down peaceful nationalism.

Do not believe the lie of nationalism; there is no contradiction in being Scottish and British, English and British, Welsh and British or Irish and British. In fact, to be Scottish, English, Welsh or Irish is to be British. Whether Scottish, Irish, English, Welsh, Ulster or Cornish; nationalism is wrong; it is a malevolent and perverse doctrine.

We became a family to better ourselves and others in a benevolent liberal democracy. The old adage is as true today as it was in 1707 and 1801; the whole is greater than the sum of its parts and I would encourage Scots to remember this in the polling stations.

On 18 January, I attended a meeting with locals, and I have no hesitation in supporting them in their fight against Queen’s University.

The proposal by Queen’s University to create halls of residence in Sans Souci is entirely inappropriate. Sans Souci is a residential area and should remain so.

Their plans will cause major nuisance to the local community. We only have to look a short distance to the way in which the inappropriate development has affected the Holy Lands.

Queen’s University is proving itself to be a bad neighbour; Sans Souci is French for “without worries” or “carefree”, and that is exactly the sort of attitude that Queen’s has shown local people.

The University authorities must withdraw the proposal and return the properties to family dwellings.

Carjacking is the action of violently stealing an occupied car.

The majority of these recent incidents have been ‘opportunist’ in nature – so please follow these simple personal security steps from the Police:

• While driving:
  • Keep your doors locked.
  • Keep windows closed or partially closed – enough to prevent someone from reaching in and unlocking doors or grabbing items.
  • Do not place items, such as handbags, phones, laptops, in full view on the passenger or back seat. Put them on the floor under your seat, in the glove box, or lock them in the boot.
  • If you are forced to stop abruptly, keep your engine running and make sure you have enough room to drive away.
  • You MUST stop for the police but it’s quite reasonable to ask for identification through a closed window and keep the engine running until you are satisfied.
  • Beware of anyone who tries to signal that there’s something wrong with your car, unless you know they’re right and it is dangerous to drive on.
  • If another driver gets out of their vehicle or pedestrian approaches you and you have concerns about their behaviour, flash your lights and sound your horn.
  • If you have an alarm, set it off.
• When parking or returning to a parked car:
  • Park in well lit, busy areas or car park.
  • When approaching your parked vehicle, be alert to anyone hanging around and if necessary walk past your car and report anything suspicious to the police immediately.
  • If your vehicle has an alarm fitted with a panic button and you think you are being approached suspiciously, activate it.
  • As you approach your car have your keys ready, if the car design allows it, unlock the driver’s door only and once inside lock you doors.
  • When you stop your vehicle, for example to get fuel or purchase a parking ticket, never leave your keys in the ignition or engine running, and always lock your car.
  • Keep an eye out for fellow motorists and report anything suspicious immediately to the police.

If you have any issues over Christmas, please contact us by email and we will deal with your issue as soon as possible.

Wishing you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, from all of the team.

Mr McGimpsey: I am grateful for the opportunity to bring this important issue forward. It is important particularly to communities living in south Belfast, and I am grateful to the Minister for being here this afternoon.

In inner south Belfast, we refer to three primary schools that are extant: one in Sandy Row, called Blythefield; one on the Donegall Road that services the Village area; and one at Fane Street that services the Lisburn Road community. All those buildings are long past their useful life. Indeed, they represent buildings from a bygone age, not simply in design but in scope, with small classrooms designed for large numbers of pupils. The proposal, which fits as well into the education strategy as it does into an economic strategy, is to bring the three primary schools together under one roof in a newbuild facility that will service the area. We are looking at a total long-term school population of around 400, which will require a school building with 14 classrooms. According to the Department’s standards, around one and a half hectares will provide the required space for the build.

There have been long discussions in these communities over a number of years to get people to, first, agree to come together and, secondly, to agree on a site in south Belfast. The area is densely built-up and has been partially redeveloped, and it is awaiting further redevelopment. It is one of the most economically deprived areas anywhere in Northern Ireland, and it suffers from severe educational disadvantage. The area is tailor-made for the education authorities to invest properly in the future of the young people there so that they can get the start that they merit in our caring society.

It seems to me that the proposed amalgamation of the three primary schools clearly fulfils the criteria for the Department’s long-term strategy. Indeed, the Department has indicated that it fits with that strategy. One site is available, which is the car park to the rear of Belfast City Hospital. The Belfast Trust agreed to release the site for the local community, and it is almost the required size of one and a half hectares. Sites on Blythefield, Sandy Row, Donegall Road and Fane Street are all less than half the necessary size. Sandy Row is being redeveloped, and the Village area is undergoing a similar process, so there are no other opportunities to provide a suitable site that fulfils the local community’s requirements for access and will mean that they can regard the development as part of their community. Consensus is always the way forward in these issues, particularly when dealing with parents and communities. We need to get that local support on the ground, and we have it for this particular site. As I said, that took many years of discussions, and I am grateful to Councillor Bob Stoker in particular for the role that he played in keeping the issue to the fore. The Belfast City Hospital site has the opportunity to fulfil a basic requirement of those communities: a primary school that is fit for purpose, modern and up to date and that will give an opportunity for serious investment in education and, therefore, in the academic achievement of our young people. A new 14-classroom school building is what we are looking for.

The current problem is that, in April 2010, the Planning Service told us that the only way to absolutely confirm the viability of the project would be to prepare and submit a full planning application, as there were what it referred to as complex planning issues. That planning application needs £16,000, and, to date, the Department has failed to authorise the board to proceed with it. That is very disappointing for me and the people in the local communities, who have invested a great deal of time and effort in the project. That disappointment happened for the sake of the £16,000 that is needed to prove the viability of the project. Once we prove its viability, we can get investment for this area. I do not think that there is a more glaring need for investment anywhere in Belfast than in this community, and I am disappointed that we cannot get any movement on the issue. The Minister wrote to me recently about the project, about which I had written to him. One line in his letter concerns me and the local community:

“There are valid reasons to support the rationalisation of these three schools in advance of a new capital build”.

Again, that fills the local community with concern that, somehow or other, the Department is looking to slip away from what we regarded for a number of years and with predecessors of the current Minister as a commitment. There is a clear need, and, with education, we have an obligation to address that need.

It is also important because the Belfast Trust has agreed to allow a very large car park at the back of Belfast City Hospital, which originally would have been housing, to go back into community use. When we have that coming together of opportunity to use the site for local communities’ needs, are we to be thwarted by not having the £16,000 to allow us to go to the planners to prove viability? I have absolutely no doubt that that viability can be swiftly demonstrated. That will allow us to go forward to the next stage, which is a newbuild. Indeed, the board is all set and ready to go. It has a strategy, as far as design and build is concerned, to rapidly put new buildings on the ground, as it is currently doing with the primary school at Taughmonagh. There is, therefore, a duty on us.

I know that capital is tight and is an issue, but there is an opportunity and a need here. As I understand it, there is also an opportunity coming, with capital being surrendered in other areas, but that is not a matter for me today. I feel strongly that to disappoint the communities in Sandy Row, the Village and on the Lisburn Road on this issue would be a grave error. We would let down not just those communities but current and future generations of children.

We have three primary schools. The one in Sandy Row is well over 100 years old. In fact, it is so old that it is listed. It is an old, industrial primary school, the sort of thing that was abandoned a generation ago. It is so old and so quaint in its build and the standard that it offered that it is actually listed as an architectural oddity and of architectural merit, as indeed is Fane Street Primary School, close to the Lisburn Road. Because it is so old, has been used for such a long time and represents a design that was abandoned generations ago it, too, is listed. The third school, on the Donegall Road, is not in the same state. It was built around 50 or 60 years ago but, as I understand it, we look on the life of any school as being around 50 years. All of them, according to those criteria, absolutely fulfil the need to go forward on that issue.

I, therefore, ask the Minister to revisit that and, in particular, to revisit the permission to the board to go through the planning process to allow us to prove the viability and then to assure the community and our young people that the project will go ahead. He will save money in the long term by putting three schools into one. The Department will save money, the board will save money and, above all, the children will gain the advantage of having a fit-for-purpose primary school to fulfil, over generations, the educational needs of an area that is, as I said at the beginning, one of the most economically disadvantaged areas anywhere in Belfast, if not Northern Ireland, and, indeed, an area of severe educational disadvantage.

The project will also provide a facility for a nursery school, so we will meet the need right from preschool years — those early years, the key years for our youngsters — all through primary school. It will allow us to make the investment in our young people that all communities need to go forward.

I have made my points, and I am grateful to the Minister for being here. I should also say that I was stopped in the corridor by Mr Jimmy Spratt, who said that he could not be here but that he supports us. I am grateful to him and to other Members.

I picked up a leaflet at Stormont produced by the Assembly Information Service entitled ‘Your Assembly; Working for you’ which got me thinking about the Assembly and its impact on society. On a daily basis I look around and see my colleagues taking part in debates, working on Committees and completing constituency casework and while I do not doubt the dedication to the electorate by the majority of the elected members I have become increasingly doubtful of the relevance of the Assembly outside the gates of Stormont.

When I entered politics it was because I wanted to make a difference to the lives of people in Northern Ireland. At first my role was within the peace movement, getting involved in groups such as the Peace Train. This background influenced my support for the Good Friday Agreement which I saw as the building block for local people making decisions for the good of local people. For too long direct rule ministers had made arms length decisions that often negatively impacted on local communities and businesses with no accountability to the electorate.

So thirteen years on from the signing of the Good Friday Agreement are the locally elected Ministers making the difference that we envisaged and delivering for communities in South Belfast and across Northern Ireland?

Meeting constituents in South Belfast I do not believe people on the ground believe the Assembly is working for them. There is a very real feeling of ‘them and us’ among many people I meet. Last week we saw many thousands of union members taking to the picket lines to protest at cuts to public spending. While this was a national strike it is not the first time in recent months that our local public servants have felt the need to take to the streets to defend the public services we all depend upon on a daily basis.

In South Belfast we have seen a relentless attack on our public services that seems never ending. In health the closure of the City Hospital Accident and Emergency Department was a bitter blow for the community it serves, especially two years before the completion of the Critical Care unit at the Royal Hospital.

In education the recent announcement of the closure of Dunmurry High School will see many of our children from the Village, Sandy Row, Donegall Pass, Taughmonagh etc having to find an alternative school including those in the midst of their GCSE study.

Libraries were another target for the Executive hatchet with the closure of Sandy Row and Belvoir and now the proposed reduction in hours at Carryduff, Cregagh etc, which could bring into question the long term viability of the libraries.

Even policing has not avoided the cuts with the proposed closure of Donegall Pass Police Station.

People on the ground are fearful of where the axe will fall next. Our young people are leaving school and college with no prospects of employment. Those who have been made redundant face many years on benefits with few job prospects in the public or private sector. Our education system is under strain while our national health service is being decimated to the advantage of the private sector.

All of this is increasingly leading to the feeling on the ground that the Assembly is not working for the people, something the two largest parties need to consider next time they decide where their priorities lie.

Today’s announcement will allow shoppers to park on-street in the City Centre for free from 4.30pm every weekday and all day Saturday from 5^th December until Christmas Eve.

In a statement Mr McGimpsey said, “I welcome this announcement by my party colleague and Minister for Regional Development, Danny Kennedy.  It will undoubtedly help local businesses that are under incredible strain due to the difficult economic climate we find ourselves in and allow them to compete on a level playing field with the out of town shopping centres.”

“The extra cost of parking could have driven some shoppers out of the city centre however the free parking will be a welcome boost for families trying to meet the additional costs of Christmas on top of the rising living costs and static or reduced incomes many have had to endure for some time now.”

In conclusion Mr McGimpsey said, “Businesses throughout the city are struggling to make ends meet and continue to keep staff employed.  This announcement shows the commitment by the Ulster Unionist Party to do all it can to support our local economy and sustain jobs.”

Mr McGimpsey: I thank the proposer and seconder of the motion. It is apposite and important that we discuss this issue and, indeed, the amendment today.
Ms Ruane suggested that this is perhaps a premature debate. I do not believe that it is, and I base that on what happened in Belfast last year, when 14 libraries were looked at and 10 were shut, some of which were in the most disadvantaged communities in Belfast such as Sandy Row, Andersonstown, Whitewell, the Braniel and the Belvoir estate. Therefore, it is very important that the House marks and puts its view forward.
Libraries are an important community resource in a number of ways, not least because the original design was to make books available to the population. Books are expensive, and disadvantaged communities and those facing poverty are not able to afford books in the household. Libraries provide that access. That was understood 100 years ago, and, at that time, the construction of the Carnegie libraries played a huge part in ensuring the literacy of our population. Those libraries have continued to deliver that service ever since. It remains an important factor that households that do not have the disposable income readily to buy books, which are expensive, have access through libraries.
It is not simply about books; it is also about new technologies. A number of homes do not have computers for their children as they grow up, and those children are, therefore, at a disadvantage vis-à-vis those in more fortunate households. There is also an issue with the age of the population in the Belvoir estate, where the library was shut last year. Its population has a high proportion of elderly people who used the library and the books. However, they were also able to access computers — the so-called silver surfers — and the internet and avail themselves of the advantages of that resource. There are issues in a number of areas where libraries continue to provide an important service. They are not something of the past but are very much of the present and the future.
I can go only by our experience in Belfast in places such as Sandy Row, where the library hours were reduced to save money, the visits were reduced to match the library hours, the library hours and staff numbers were reduced to match the opening hours and it became a self-fulfilling prophecy. That is what happened in Belvoir, Sandy Row and other libraries.
I realise that there is a different regime in DCAL, and I see that, of the 10 libraries under threat, eight are under review. I welcome that, and I acknowledge the Minister’s role. She is bound to have had a role in that, bearing in mind that libraries and Libraries NI are 100% funded by the Department. However, I have a concern that, as we look to keep libraries open, that is not the whole story. We need opening hours that are adequate to deliver the service to ensure that visitor numbers stay up and the local community is properly served. I am not a particular fan of mobile libraries, and I have noticed that, although Belfast gets mobile libraries a couple of hours a week or a fortnight to try to plug the gap, the local community has difficulty accessing them. I do not believe that they are in any way, shape or form a proper substitute for a library in position.
I realise that we are in challenging budgetary times, and that is why my party and I voted against the Budget. You are now looking at the consequences of the Budget that was voted through. There is not enough money to run the service and the system, and we are into prioritisation. On the issue of an urban/rural divide, closing 10 out of 14 libraries in Belfast and saving eight out 10 in rural areas —
That appears to be something of a rural/urban divide. I am not for a second arguing that any library should close in a rural area. In fact, we should look to keep as much as possible of our resources together and functioning.