A-level pupil becomes one of UK's youngest aldermen at Antrim and Newtownabbey AGM

The 18-year-old Ballyclare representative had the title bestowed at the council’s annual general meeting last week. It was proposed by Alliance group leader Councillor Billy Webb MBE.

Ald Boyle is a sixth form pupil at Rainey Endowed School in Magherafelt where he is taking A-levels in business, history and politics and hopes to further his studies in politics at either Queen’s University Belfast or Ulster University.

The teenager from Randalstown said he has been interested in politics from a young age. “I watched the Brexit referendum but I was too young to do anything about it,” he said. “I followed Brexit on the news and got more involved. I read books about it and read about possible different outcomes and my interest just snowballed.”

He went on to say he followed the 2019 local government election and he was following the Alliance Party on social media before a work experience stint with Alliance Strangford MLA Kellie Armstrong and joining Alliance Youth.

Currently, Ald Boyle is Alliance Youth secretary and a member of South Antrim Alliance, which has approximately 130 members. He got involved with the party’s election campaign which he says commenced in January.

Introduce Candidates

“We did focus leaflets to show the party is active outside election time and to introduce candidates to the electorate.”

He said that issues raised on the doorstep ranged from lack of an Executive to anti-social behaviour, town centre development and potholes.

He added he believes that Ballyclare’s services will not be “adequate” to meet the demand its expanding population once the new housing in the west of the town is complete bringing an estimated 2,600 new residents.

“We need to expand amenities so that quality of life does not drop for everybody.”

He continued: “I would like to see more retail coming to the town so there are more opportunities for people to shop. Translink has expanded the bus service to the town from Belfast. That is the sort of stuff we need to see coming to the town, new services.”

Ald Boyle went on to say he would like to see increased recycling rates, an increase in biodiversity and tree cover.

He indicated he supports the rolling out of triple-stack bins in the Antrim area. Currently, these are supplied to households in the legacy Newtownabbey Borough Council district.

“The ratepayers in one part of the borough can get funding to access this recycling. It is not fair. I would support the rolling out of these boxes,” he commented.

Bible Reading

At last week’s AGM, Ald Boyle proposed dropping the Bible reading from council meetings which takes place monthly ahead of business. It is not mandatory for councillors to attend.

“I brought forward a proposal to remove the Bible prayer. It is about freedom of religion and freedom from religion,” he said. “One quarter of people in Antrim and Newtownabbey say they are something other than Christian. Mandatory Christian Bible readings before council sessions removes that choice and Alliance believes that is wrong.”

His proposal was defeated by 17 votes in favour and 22 against.

“I just want to deliver for people in this council mandate before I think about the future,” he added.

Michelle Weir, Local Democracy Reporter