In addition to my constituency work (click here to see), I believe in active political representation, and campaign vigorously on difficult issues.
I continue to pursue many campaigns month after month, sometimes for years, and as you can see fromsome of my achievements here (click here to see) I often get success in the end.
Here are a few of my ongoing campaigns
CAMPAIGN FOR GOOD PLANNING FOR SAUL ROAD
CLICK HERE FOR SPECIAL PAGE FOR SAUL ROAD RESIDENTS ASSOCIATION
MINERSTOWN BEACH BYE-LAWS
With Minerstown residents Philip Nye (L) and Jonathan Bradshaw (R) overlooking the seal colony at Minerstown.
I have been campaigning for several years with and on behalf of local environmentalists to secure protection for the seal-colony and shore-nesting birds at Minerstown. If this campaign succeeds, it will make our local Down District Council the first in N.Ireland to produce a set of bye-laws to protect wildlife. link to page here
– Campaign for the Downe Hospital
Raymond Blaney (left) was an independent “hospital candidate” councillor for many years before handing on his seat to Bill Corry in 2005 who successfully retained the seat. I took over from Bill in 2007, and also successfully retained the seat in 2011. and have continued campaigning with the Downe Community Health Committee to this day. see page
BALLYHORNAN REALM INTER-AGENCY GROUP
At the request of community leaders in Ballyhornan, I pushed Down Council to revive the Ballyhornan Regeneration Task Force in 2009 after it had been moribund for some years. I have since worked with local residents and other local representatives of a wide range of community safety issues in addressing community safety issues in this area.
At my suggestion, the ‘Task Force’ was renamed in 2011 as the “Ballyhornan Realm Interagency Group” inorder to overcome bureaucratic resistance to participating in this group on the part of the Roads Service and other agencies.
This group meets regularly, and (in March 2012) I am assisting the residents representatives to bring out their first newsletter to high-light some of the achievements so far to date. link to Ballyhornan page here
MONEYDARRAGH RIVER SCANDAL
This is one of the worst failures I have ever seen from N.I. government departments on Environmental Enforcement. See page
CAMPAIGN TO REMOVE OBSTACLES TO RENEWABLE ENERGY
I have been campaigning on this issue for many years. I started recording my work on this issue back in 2007 on this web-site – see link to that page
EXPANDING THE SCOPE OF RECYCLING IN DOWN DISTRICT
I have several campaigns ongoing in the re-cycling arena – there is much more we can be doing at local council level, some examples are shown here;
1. Since 2010 I have been campaigning to alter the way in which waste is managed at our amenity centres in Down District to allow us to recycle large domestic goods see electrical goods, furniture, bicycles etc and also here
2. Put link to campaign for ‘freecycle website’ here
3. Campaign to recycle more waste at the civic recycling centres using local labour – put link here
There is also the key problem of the Council allowing its policy on waste to be driven towards spending £37 million to ship our waste to Belfast for incinceration by a false belief that we will suffer ‘NILAS fines’ if we simply (and much more cheaply) recycle our waste locally. More on this later!!
PLANNING IN THIS AREA AND N.I. IS BESET BY SCANDALS
I have started work on this page to show my long-standing opposition to what I see as abuses of planning law. I have started to pull together my work on this subject here
CAMPAIGNING TO ENSURE THE GOOD FRIDAY AGREEMENT IS FULLY IMPLEMENTED
There are many issues here, like the long-promised Charter of Human Rights, full implementation of the ‘Patten Reforms’ to the PSNI or issues like the refusal of the British Government to honour its written committments for an Gaelic Language Act in N.Ireland is a similar manner to Welsh in Wales or Gaelic in Scotland.
The protection of Irish is part of the conversation of resources is vital for a sustainable society. The Irish language is an important cultural resource for the people of Ireland north and south, but it is a vulnerable and damaged resource which needs to be protected. As the caretakers of the Earth, we have the responsibility to pass on its resources, including its cultural and linguistic resources, in a fit and healthy state to future generations.
The last agreed deadline between the two governments for an Irish Language Act similar to that in Wales for Welsh or the RoI for Gaelic was 2007. Until this act is passed the requirement for mutual respect between the British and Irish traditions in Nothern Ireland cannot be said to have happened.
This act should be implemented by Westminster in a similar manner as Gay Rights were implemented in NI. In reality, it is is not politically possible for the DUP to support either Gay Rights or European Law on Language Rights, thus there can be no consensus on these issue within NI. The belief that Gays and Lesbians should be deprived of thier rights as it might cause “serious offence” was as objectionable as current suggestions that Irish speakers should not also have their rights for fear of “understandable reactions arising from the offence caused” (Alliance Party). This type of racism is at least as bad as sexism endured by Gays and Lesbians in NI for so long.