Executive parties' failure means service cuts for North Belfast

3.20.00pm GMT Mon 3rd Mar 2008

North Belfast spokesperson, Gerry Lynch

The Alliance Party's Executive Director and North Belfast spokesperson, Gerry Lynch has condemned the Executive parties for nodding through a regional rates freeze that will condemn North Belfast and Newtownabbey to service cuts.

Gerry Lynch said: "The SDLP and Sinn Fein were completely silent as Peter Robinson put the last and most critical plank of his Thatcherite budget through the Assembly. Only Alliance challenged the DUP in the Assembly chamber, while others cowered from Peter Robinson's habitual bully-boy tactics and voted for his rates package.

"No-one likes paying taxes, and Alliance believes in keeping taxes as low as possible. We support a rates rise only in line with inflation - that means less than 50p per week for an average household.

"If rates are kept below inflation, we will have less money to spend on services. The 'efficiency savings' set out in Peter Robinson's budget are not so easy to realise in practice. Therefore, a rates freeze will mean cuts in local services which will hit hardest in areas with high levels of deprivation - like ours.

"When the Trimble/Durkan administration kept rates artificially low, we ended up with massive hikes years down the line. The SDLP, Sinn Féin, UUP and DUP have all voted for a Thatcherite budget which gives Peter Robinson some cheap headlines at the cost of reduced services and possible massive rates hikes in years to come. Alliance will not be playing cheap politics with our public services."

ENDS