Plight of Village residents is being ignored
I WRITE as someone who is proud to live in the Village, Donegall Road, south Belfast.
Your readers may or may not be aware of the plight of the residents and community in this inner-city area of Belfast.
At present I am living in a house surrounded by derelict homes and mass areas of land which once had houses standing on them.
We have been promised new homes for years, despite concerns echoed by the community.
Last August the first homes were demolished, yet nothing has happened since.
Here we have one of a few areas of Belfast, once heavily populated by the unionist community, left to die.
As a Housing Executive tenant I have been seeking to get clarification from the Housing Executive as to when I can expect to vacate my own property, which is to demolished, and move into one of the new homes we have been promised for some time now.
These new homes remain to be seen and just appear to be a distant hope of existence at this point.
We in the Village are being ignored. There do not seem to be any formal plans as to when work will begin.
In the meantime, many of those residents who vacated their homes have moved on and may never return given the lack of information and delays in bringing about this transformation.
It appears to be typical of Housing Executive tenants, especially those who are unionist and living in Belfast, to be treated in such a fashion.
It is in many people’s eyes a form of ethnic cleansing whereby a large section of the unionist population in Belfast have been displaced and moved on elsewhere.
Angry Village Protestant
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Thursday 24 May 2012
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Comments
There are 4 comments to this article
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Ulsterwoman
Tuesday, February 28, 2012 at 08:12 PMIt is sad to see the changes in old Belfast. I pray that our old folk have a peaceful and better life than we witnessed over thirty years. I do agree with Topper there seems to be a government agenda that is embracing foreign nationals. A Tory MP made a statement regarding Peterborough that the town has been overwhelmed by the foreign legion and has affected the NHS, housing and education of the indigenous population.I do hope Ulster does not fall into this trap.
MOD
Wednesday, February 22, 2012 at 04:37 PMs magowan You are o so right. These 'politicans' have a lot to answer for. Of course with Sandy Row etc they could hide behind the excuse of 'direct rule'. It was all Westminster's fault and nothing they could do about it. Whats their excuse this time? Instead of giving support to areas like the Village they are deserting those who live there. Seems to me they stop counting at one!
s magowan
Wednesday, February 15, 2012 at 09:38 PMWhat is happening in the Village happened in Sandy Row many years ago,streets of houses were demolished and the residents rehoused in estates on the outskirts of Belfast and even as far away as Bangor and Lisburn never to return to Sandy Row,thousands of Unionist votes were lost in South Belfast and this is what is going to happen in the Village area.The political representitives hav ea ot to answer for as was in the case of Sandy Row ,they have stood back and done absolutely nothing to stop the demolition of another Unionist area.
Topperharvey
Wednesday, February 15, 2012 at 07:23 PMI noticed that there is a lot of foreign nationals in the area. I have witnessed the displacement of the local population in English cities to accommodate foreigners especially indigenous populations on the fringes of towns. The UK government seems set in having and giving the impression that we are all European and accept mass immigration to create a multi-cultural society. To quote David Cameron, {last year}' Multi-culturism is not working! The hypocrisy of this man comes through as our populations increase dramatically!
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