Councillor Alex Easton - Rathgill
North Down MLA, Alex Easton, attending the AGM of Rathgill Community Association on Wednesday afternoon, has congratulated them on another successful year and wished the officers well for the year ahead.
Speaking today Alex said:
“I congratulate the officers of Rathgill Community Association on their re-election and on another successful year. The association has worked hard over the last year and their work and success has had visible results.
The officers and association are committed to making their area better and this has to be welcomed. I wish them every success for the new year.” the MLA
Councillor Alex Easton - Medical Negligence
North Down MLA, Alex Easton has hit out at negligence costs incurred by the NHS in Northern Ireland for the most up-to-date year ending March 2009.
Speaking today Alex said:
“I was shocked to learn that costs for medical negligence totalled nearly £20 million in the last year.
This money would have been better spent on front line services, like ambulances and staff.
We are seeing a situation unfold where scheduled surgeries and outpatient appointments are being cancelled at short notice due to staff shortages. This is unacceptable.
I call on the Minister to review these costs and work to ensure, with medical staff, that these costs are limited.
It is unfortunate that people take cases against the NHS, which is funded by the tax payer. However people have a right to seek compensation where negligence has occurred and I respect that. However this is hurting the NHS, especially at these difficult economic times when the strings of the public purse are tight.” the MLA said.
Councillor Peter Weir - Ryanair
"I am deeply disappointed but not entirely surprised by the decision of Ryanair to pull out of routes from the George Best Belfast City Airport. This will have a damaging effect on jobs and investment in the East Belfast and North Down areas, with many local businesses and consumers adversely effected, beyond just the Ryanair employees. This decision smacks of petulance, and shows the same contempt for local people as displayed by company statements in the past. It is short termism and impatience at its worst. I would support a commercially strong airport at Sydenham, but due process must be followed in terms of the Planning Enquiry, without which a judicial review would have been inevitable, something which the airport itself accepts, but seems lost on Ryanair.
This is clearly a short term blow, but I have confidence in the long term economic success of the airport, as witnessed by its economic success in recent years. It is clear that successul routes have been developed and are continuing to grow, and I have every faith that other airlines will see the sense in the long run of stepping into the gap left by Ryanair. I believe that despite this undoubted setback that the airport will go from strength to strength, and that ultimately it will be Ryanair who has lost more out of today's decision rather than the City Airport."
Councillor Peter Weir - Holywood Attack
"I utterly condemn the overnight attack on a man in Church Green in Holywood. This was clearly a vicious and pre meditated attack and we are fortunate that today we are not dealing with a murder. This sort of criminal thuggishness has no place in our society and it is something that people in Holywood had thought had been put behind them. We must all hope and pray that the victim makes a swift recovery. I call upon anyone who has any suspicions or knowledge of this crime to immediate come forward to Holywood PSNI."
Councillor Peter Weir - Whitehill Assault
" I was shocked and disgusted to learn of the vicious attack of a man in Whitehill in Bangor at the weekend. This is totally unacceptable and will rightly be condemned by all right thinking in Bangor. My thoughts and prayers are with the victim and his family, and I hope that he makes a swift and full recovery. I urge anyone with any information on this crime to immediately bring to Bangor police."
Councillor Alex Easton - Assault
North Down MLA, Alex Easton has hit out at those responsible for an assualt that happened at the weekend in Bangor.
Speaking today Alex said:
“I totally condemn this assault on a man in Bangor at the weekend.
I appeal to anyone with information to bring it to the PSNI.” the MLA said.
Councillor Peter Weir - Rigid Dogmatism
"For some time I have had growing concerns at the damage being caused to local pupils by the increasingly disfunctional nature of the Department of Education. The currrent perilous state of the Department is hardly surprising given the Ministerial incumbent, but two very recent examples higlights the damge that is being caused to pupils in North Down. Firstly, the damning Audit Office report this week has highligthed that during the last 5 years, the Department has failed to spend £350 million of its new build schools capital budget, representing nearly 30% of its overall capital budget for the period. Shocking while this is, this is not just a damning indictment of past practises, but also of future action. Delays in progressing capital build, which may have to be reallocated back financially, further put new projects on the long finger. So the long delayed Holywood schools project involving Priory, Holywood Primary, Redburn Primary and Holywood Nursery may have to wait even longer, niot just because of the tight state of public finances but also because of Departmnetal incompetence.
The second indictment is on local secondary school admissions. A number of Bangor parents have been left high and dry, in part because both they and Bangor Academy followed Departmental advice to the letter, but because of rigid dogmatism on behalf of the Department in imposing a totally artificial cap on numbers. We are now left in the absurd situation that pupils are unable to get into their local school, despite the fact that they meet the entry criteria, despite the fact that it is their school of choice, despite the fact that the school can physically take them and despite the fact that the school is willing and keen to take them. The only obstacle is the rigid imposition of an artificial cap by the Department. This is simply unaccpetable, and it is high time that the Department put its house in order before any more North Down pupils lose out."
Councillor Alex Easton - Holywood Crawfordsburn Bus
North Down MLA, Alex Easton has called on Translink to reinstate a local bus service provided for children living in Hollywood to Crawfordsburn Primary School.
Speaking today Alex said:
“Most of these kids who use the bus service are totally reliant on it in order to get to school. They are all from a working class background and do not have access to any other form of transport.
I call on Translink to reinstate this school bus service for these children in Hollywood. Schools are due to start back in just over a week and parents are getting anxious as to how their children will get to school safely.
I have written to Translink urging them to review their decision.” the MLA said.
Councillor Alex Easton - Ballyholme Death
North Down MLA, Alex Easton has extended his sympathy to the family of a woman found dead on Ballyholme beach today and called for anyone with information to bring it forward to the PSNI.
It is not thought to be suspicious.
Speaking today Alex said:
“I extend my sympathies to the family of the woman found dead today on Ballyholme beach.
My thoughts and prayers are with her family circle at this difficult time.
I also call on anyone with information to bring it forward to the PSNI.” the MLA said.
Councillor Peter Weir - North Down A*
"Yet again Northern Ireland has come top of the table for A Level results, with local students in North Down leading the way. All the students throughout North Down are to be congrratulated on their success, and we should also remember that as well as the hard work of local students, that this has also been achieved with the help of dedicated teachers throughout North Down. The success of our local A level students should send a clear signal to our Education minsiter that we have a successful educational system, and her tampering can only act to its detriment. She runs the risk of ringfencing educational success to those with the money to pay for the best, and deprive our universities of the rich social mix, which make them some of the most reprsentative in the country. Indeed it could be argued in North Down that the main problem with the eduaction system has been caused by the interference of the Minister and the Department. It is not the Grammar school system which has suffered, but rather a number of local parents and schools which have dutifully followed the advice of the Department in their admissions. We are left with a number of parents in North Down still without a place for their child at secondary level, all as a result of the guidelines and blinkered approach of the Department. We have the ludricrous position at Bangor Academy at present, with a number of children who don't have a school seeking admission, a school that has the physical capacity to take them, and a Headmaster willing to accommodate them, yet they are denied a place because of an artificial cap put on by the Department. It is high time that the Minister and the Department applied the same level of intelligence as the successful A Level students in North Down and applied some common sense to find an acceptable solution to this problem."
