Council Must Do The Right Thing
Councillor Robin Newton said
“The council must take account of the overwhelming public opinion of ratepayers and give the go-ahead to the Energy from Waste Plant at the North Belfast site.
It has been a difficult couple of days for the council. Firstly we had the apparent decision to go against public opinion and turn down the Energy from Waste Plant. The financial implications of that decision would have meant a serious hike in rates not just in Belfast but across Northern Ireland at a time when people are really struggling to make ends meet.
Secondly, it now appears there was an irregularity in the voting that materially affected the outcome. While it is worrying that such a mistake has happened, the silver lining is that it will give us the opportunity to right what was a considerable wrong.
The public reaction to the decision on Tuesday night has been crystal clear on phone-in radio programmes through to websites of other organisations where the disquiet of the people of this city has been there for all to see and hear.
It is clearly wrong for the council to have spent £100,000 on asking the public what they wanted and then ignore the fact that nine out of 10 of our citizens backed the plans for the Energy from Waste Plant. What chance would we have of getting citizens to respond to any further attempts by the council to garner their views on any issue if we choose to ignore such an overwhelming statement from the public?"
