Incidents Must Be Tackled Early
East Belfast DUP MLA Robin Newton has expressed concerns about reported sectarian incidents at the interface between Short Strand and the Ravenhill and Woodstock Roads.
Speaking today Mr Newton said,
“Youth and community workers have raised their concerns with me and recent media reports regarding damage to homes and businesses on the Ravenhill Road are worrying.
As we approach the lighter nights and school holidays there is the potential for the number of incidents to increase with likely tit-for-tat attacks to emerge.
I want to pay tribute to the youth and community workers, from both sides of the community, who have condemned these attacks and for the very positive cross community work they are doing. Incidents of this type cannot be allowed to continue and escalate. When the young thugs who create the mayhem return to their homes the long suffering interface residents are left to pick–up the pieces.
Finding solutions to the interface problems is vitally important if our society is to progress and prosper. Those who are engaged in and determined to continually create unrest need to be isolated by their communities. Community workers dealing with this type of difficult interface trouble need support from the whole community, including the PSNI. A failure to grasp this stinging nettle at this early part of the year will see us paying a high price for our neglect over the summer months.”
