Member's statement: Shore Road Skills Centre
Member's statement by Mr Phillip Brett on .
- MLA
- Mr Phillip Brett
- Party at the time
- Democratic Unionist Party
- Date
- 18 February 2025
- Type
- Member's statement
- Business
- Members' Statements
- Heading
- Shore Road Skills Centre
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 4806145
Read the official Assembly record
Text
Last September, I lamented in the Chamber the Labour Government's decision to pause vital funding for my constituency of North Belfast. Not content with picking the pockets of pensioners by removing the universal winter fuel allowance or with their proposals to destroy family farms, they went on to attack one of the most socially and economically deprived constituencies in the United Kingdom by removing funding from North Belfast. The Shore Road skills centre aims to transform the life opportunities of young people who call Shore Road and wider north Belfast home, providing them with lifelong learning and providing opportunities for future job creation. I made it clear in my remarks in September that I would leave no stone unturned to fight that disgraceful decision. I put on record my thanks to my parliamentary colleagues who stood with me for the entirety of the campaign and to the people of Crusaders Football Club, who never gave up hope of securing the funding. The culmination of our campaign came yesterday when the Deputy Prime Minister announced that the only project in Northern Ireland to go ahead and receive the funding that it deserves will be the Shore Road skills centre. Some £2·25 million is to be invested in the heart of a community in North Belfast that, for many years, has been denied the resources that it has deserved. I express my gratitude to all those who supported our campaign. Although it is a great victory, the campaign to build back North Belfast will continue in earnest. I continue to put Ministers here on notice that we expect funding to be secured for the next phase of the development of the Shore Road, which is at the former Grove leisure centre site, as the Castle Community Trust rightly continues to campaign to deliver a dedicated resource centre in the heart of North Belfast. That campaign has my full support, and I look forward to helping secure the funding that it also richly deserves.
331 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.
Assessment
Awaiting analysis
This record has not been analysed yet. It is not counted in any total until it has been assessed.
Disagree with this assessment?
Classifications can be challenged. A person reviews every challenge, and any change is recorded publicly above with its reason.