Latest news with #DepartmentForCommunities
BBC News
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- BBC News
Belfast Culture Night to get no funding from Stormont
It is "disappointing" that Stormont departments will not provide any funding to Culture Night in Belfast this year, a councillor has said. It comes as the popular cultural event is returning to Belfast after a six year hiatus, but with a smaller scale "new look". Belfast City Council has committed £150,000 for the delivery of the festival, which takes place on 19 September. In May the council approached both the Department for Communities (DfC) and the Department for Infrastructure (DfI) asking them to consider supporting the festival, but both departments have now said there is no spare money to do so. At a meeting of the council's City Growth and Regeneration Committee on Thursday night, elected representatives were given an update on plans for this year's were told that a letter from a representative of the DfC said: "The Department does not have any funding streams available, which I appreciate will be disappointing."Green Party Councillor Áine Groogan said it would be "very short sighted for the Department for Communities not to see the benefit that Culture Night brings and not invest in it long-term".She hopes Stormont will provide funding in years to come. "This will be the first year with a new look for culture night and I'm excited to see how it will grow in the coming years," she said. 'Window into the arts sector' Groogan described art as a public good, that can do wonders for the night time economy. "There's so much more to the arts sector than just Culture Night, but Culture Night is a window into it," she also urged the DfI to confirm if Translink would offer a night-time service for Culture Night, which could provide something to work towards building a long-term night time service. In a letter responding to the council on transport services for the event, the Infrastructure Minister Liz Kimmins said she understands that "Translink are working with the City Council to develop a support plan" and "welcome that both organisations are continuing to work together to ensure that people will be able to travel to and from the event by public transport". Culture night in Belfast started in 2009, and grew in scale with the 2019 event attracting over 100,000 people to the city centre. The event received the majority of its support from the Arts Council NI, The Executive Office, Department for Communities and Tourism NI alongside support from trusts and the private was managed by the Cathedral Quarter 2019, the budget was over £328,000 according to notes from the Belfast City Growth and Regeneration Committee. Culture Night was suspended in 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic, and never returned in its former capacity. The new Culture Night will not programme street-based events and will concentrate on venue-based events with more community involvement. The power of the arts Adam Turkington was involved in the organisation of Culture night between 2011 and 2016. He told BBC News that his return to organising this years events have been like a "sprint to the finish". "If you don't do something for a while you have to start over, essentially."In April it was announced Belfast Culture Night would return this then agreed to launch a public procurement exercise to deliver the 2025 Culture Night programme up to the value of £150,000, considerably more than Belfast Council previously contributed."We had to start from scratch, and we only started organising in June," he said. He said this year is about putting culture "back on the map". He said the ability of the event to "transform the city, even just for one night, was inspirational. It shows 'this is the power of the arts'". In a statement, Belfast City Council said: "Due to timescales and budget, the 2025 event will be smaller in scale than previous years and limited to venue-based events, with the main focus being on the creative sector." The Department for Infrastructure and Department of Communities were contacted for comment.
BBC News
08-07-2025
- Business
- BBC News
Bangor: Residents 'stonewalled' over questions on £1.3m sculpture
Some North Down residents claim to have been "stonewalled" when asking questions about a £1.3m sculpture project in Bangor Waterfront Art Installation is to be part of the redevelopment of Bangor seafront, but some residents have questioned the cost of the sculptures and how they were some other public art projects commissioned by councils in Northern Ireland, there was no public competition or tender for the Bangor and North Down Borough Council (ANDBC) said that "in discussion with the principal funder, the Department for Communities, the council decided to commission Colin Davidson via direct award". The Department for Communities (DfC) said that "the procurement route taken by the council was in compliance with the Public Contracts Regulations 2015". What are the sculptures? According to a press release from the DfC in March, the Bangor Waterfront Art Installation will be a series of three main piece will be "a six-metre-tall set of hands entitled 'Hope Returning'," in bronze, with two smaller sculptures located at Pickie Park and Eisenhower smaller sculptures will be of hands creating the shape of a crab and a piece will also include a QR code linking people to information and stories of the three pieces will be created and made by artist Davidson, who lives in the Davidson is a well-known visual artist and also made the bust of Senator George Mitchell outside Queen's University to DfC, the total cost of the installations is estimated to be in the region of £1.287m, of which DfC will contribute £ remainder of the funding - more than £200,000 - will be met by ANDBCSome residents from the Ards and North Down Resident's Voice group have questioned how the contract for the sculptures was awarded. What questions do the residents have? Rosemary Howell from the resident's group claimed they had been "stonewalled" when asking questions about the sculptures."We've tried to make the council, and council officers and councillors accountable," she said."We really have not been given any satisfactory answers."We don't have an issue with the artist but why was there no tender? And why therefore was there no competition for this?"I think it is lovely that there is artwork going for Bangor."But we're ratepayers, it's our money." Joyce Craig, who is also in the group, said the rates in the council area had gone up by almost 6% in 2024-25 and 3.65% in 2025-26."When we've seen other pieces of artwork go up around Northern Ireland, it's all gone to tender," she told BBC News NI."So it gives artists in the whole of Northern Ireland, and various other places, the opportunity to be honoured to put a piece of artwork up in their local town, to be there forever."So when we realised that this, for some reason, didn't go to tender, we couldn't understand why Ards and North Down Borough Council were different to other councils?"Ian Jordan from Newtownards told BBC News NI that "there's a general concern that the ratepayer isn't being acknowledged in what they're paying into the council and how the money is being spent, whether it's being spent judiciously or not"."The council's own constitution talks about engaging with the public and stakeholders and the rest of that political speak and nobody feels as if the public have been engaged on any sort of level at all in relation to how this sculpture has come about to be considered," he continued."Any time we've made approaches to the council we feel as if we're being stonewalled." Public art in Northern Ireland Some other large-scale public art installations commissioned by councils in Northern Ireland were put out to includes the Rise installation, known as "the balls on the Falls," advertised for competition by Belfast City Council in Nottingham-based artist Wolfgang Buttress was selected to make the piece from over 40 competing to Belfast City Council, Rise cost £486,000, with £330,000 coming from the then Department for Social Development, £100,000 from the Arts Council of Northern Ireland - via Lottery funding - and £56,000 from Belfast City recently, an artwork to remember local shirt factory workers in Londonderry's Harbour Square was also advertised for tender by Derry City and Strabane District Council in artwork was tendered for £190,000 as part of an overall £1.3m redevelopment of Harbour former shirt factory workers have been critical of the finished piece. Council and Stormont response BBC News NI also put a series of questions to the council and the department about the department said: "Ards and North Down Borough Council identified the opportunity to work with the artist, Colin Davidson, and approached the Department for grant funding assistance of £1.05m to support the delivery of an iconic art project for Bangor"."While the procurement exercise is a matter for Ards and North Down Borough Council, the Department did seek advice from the Department of Finance on this matter."Regulation 32 (2) (b) (i) of The Public Contracts Regulations 2015 allows for the direct procurement of a unique piece of art."That regulation allows an authority to award a contract for "acquisition of a unique work of art or artistic performance" without prior publication. 'Extremely exciting project' The department said the council had published "a Voluntary Ex Ante Transparency (VEAT) notice on the 'Find a Tender' national portal," on 1 March 2024.A Voluntary Ex Ante Transparency Notice (VEAT) is a notice published by a contracting authority to announce a decision to award a contract without first having published a tender response to BBC News NI, ANDBC said they had "identified an opportunity to secure the services of blue-chip artist Colin Davidson".They also said the council funding was "from our capital reserves fund (underspends from various service budgets in previous years) and therefore there is no additional cost to the ratepayers from this project"."In discussion with the principal funder, the Department for Communities, the council decided to commission Colin Davidson via direct award," the council said."As such no public competition was held, however a VEAT notice (Voluntary Ex-Ante Transparency Notice) was published on the e-tenders national portal to alert any alternative suppliers that the Council intended to award the proposed contract."This allowed 30 days for anyone wishing to challenge, to do so."No challenges were submitted."The council has also put information on the "art-led regeneration" of Bangor on the council website."It is anticipated that the three artworks will be assembled and installed by Summer 2026," the council said."This is an extremely exciting project for Bangor."When approached by BBC News NI, Davidson said he had decided not to make any comment.
BBC News
02-06-2025
- Business
- BBC News
Social housing: Targets hit by Stormont budget challenges
Stormont's budget will only fund work on about 1,000 new social houses this year, far short of the Northern Ireland Executive's Programme for Government committed to starting work on at least 5,850 new build social homes by equates to about 2,000 new starts per year which would be a big step up compared to the delivery rate of recent on the basis of the current budget the number of homes started this year will be lower than the 1,504 started last year. Figures published last month show that in the first quarter of this year 49,083 households in Northern Ireland were on a social housing waiting list. The Department for Communities, which is the main funder for social housing, has allocated £63m to social has a total capital budget of about £270m but most of that is already committed to existing department can bid for additional money through the year in budget reallocation exercises, known as monitoring rounds.A monitoring round is due to be held this month but there is no certainty about how much money will be available or how it will be department would need an additional £62m to keep it on track to hit the Programme for Government target.
BBC News
02-06-2025
- General
- BBC News
More than 100 historic sites damaged across NI
More than 100 specially protected archaeological sites and historic monuments have been damaged or vandalised in Northern Ireland over the last five of the breaches occurred on or near farmland including an ancient field system in County Antrim and a centuries-old ceremonial site in County are 2,000 historic monuments in Northern Ireland that are protected by law, with some dating back almost 10,000 latest figures on damage and vandalism have led to fresh calls for more awareness to be raised around the importance of such historical sites and Department for Communities has responsibility for protecting historic monuments here. Paul Logue is a senior official with the department's historic environment said: "Archaeological sites represent a unique source of information about the lives of our ancestors and how they adapted to and changed their environment."Unauthorised works at scheduled sites remove or degrade that archaeological source of information and can be likened to removing an important book from a library and burning it before anyone has had a chance to read it." What are historic monuments? There are currently around 35,500 archaeological monuments recorded in the Historic Environment Record of Northern Ireland (HERoNI).But only around 2,000 of them are scheduled, which means they have statutory include many prehistoric sites, forts, churches, castles, maritime sites, and also more recent industrial and defence sites and monuments are discovered every year, often during building excavations, the farming of land and changes in weather conditions revealing ancient News NI previously reported on how in 2022 a spell of hot weather dried up a swamp in the Loup area that had been concealing a man-made island, known as a crannog. Special permission must be sought before any works are carried out on scheduled monuments to protect them from to get the proper permissions or unlawfully disturbing them can lead to a court summons and a January 2024 a building contractor was fined £50,000 for demolishing a protected historic monument on a site he intended to develop in County obtained by BBC News NI show that there have been over 100 breach cases at scheduled monuments in the last five years. A breakdown of the figures include damage to an ancient field system in County Antrim and a unique set of historic limekilns near incidents include graffiti at a 5,000-year-old tomb site open to the public in County Down.A path was also unlawfully inserted into an ancient ceremonial site near a burial cairn in the historic Davagh forest in County Forest is located at the foot of the Sperrin Mountains where a number of significant archaeological finds have been include the Beaghmore Stone Circles which were discovered in the late 1930s when a local worker, George Barnett, was cutting peat. Damage was also recorded at a number of historic canals in Newry and near the River Lagan in metal detecting was also a problem and in one instance a number of large holes were dug up at a medieval abbey site in Co Down. 'Farmers are responsible people' Some of the most serious damage cases occurred during the Covid period and around 30% of breaches occurred in urban areas, but most breaches were on Logue said: "The high percentage of farmland cases is most likely because Northern Ireland has a large amount of farmland in our landscape and the overwhelming number of protected monuments are on farmland."But overwhelmingly, we believe that Northern Ireland landowners and farmers are responsible people who in many cases have carefully looked after monuments on their land for generations. However, like any other section of society, a minority do not act responsibly."Seán Clarke is a Sinn Fein councillor and farmer from Broughderg who has reported the discovery of several historic artefacts from the land during his working life. Along with the local history group, he was instrumental in discovering a prehistoric site surrounding the ruins of an old school from the said: "We noticed that there was this deep bank in a double ring shape that surrounded the old playground, and we began to realise this was something much older."We reported it to the authorities and they said they believed it was a prehistoric ceremonial site, so we helped get it reported and registered."He added: "Down the years even on my own land I've discovered different things like old standing stones and stone circles."It's so important to protect these artefacts because they're part of our story, part of our past and once they're gone, they're gone forever, they can't be replicated." Paul Logue added: "The reality is we need the message out there that if you do damage heritage, you may end up with a criminal record."And that's not what we want, so we would just ask people to be cautious and remember these places and monuments are telling important stories about humanity."
BBC News
15-05-2025
- Politics
- BBC News
Anti-poverty strategy: Stormont to sign off plan after 18 years
Stormont ministers are expected to agree the Northern Ireland Executive's first-ever draft strategy to tackle poverty later on Thursday, BBC News NI March, Stormont's Executive Committee was found in breach of its legal obligation to adopt the strategy by a court anti-poverty strategy was first committed to 18 years ago with the aim of reducing social exclusion and Minister Gordon Lyons submitted a draft paper to ministers for consideration about six weeks ago. The minister previously described the document as a "realistic" but long-term plan to tackle must be signed off by ministers before it can go out for public will then return to the executive for any final changes to be considered before Stormont departments can begin to implement figures from the Department for Communities (DfC) suggest about 22% of children in Northern Ireland are growing up in figures also indicate that about 23% of children are in relative poverty and about 20% are in absolute poverty. What is the Stormont anti-poverty strategy? The anti-poverty strategy is a requirement inserted into the Northern Ireland Act, following the St Andrews Agreement in have been multiple court orders and legal challenges made as no strategy has ever been implemented in Northern January, judgment was reserved in a recent legal challenge brought against Stormont for "failing to adopt" an anti-poverty strategy for Northern months later at the High Court in Belfast, Stormont's Executive Committee was found in breach of its legal obligation to adopt a strategy. How is poverty measured? There are two main measurements of low income used by the government, absolute poverty and relative poverty. Income is counted as the money a household has to spend after housing costs are taken into poverty measures how many people this year cannot afford a set standard of living. The Department for Work and Pensions at Westminster currently defines it based on the living standard an average income could buy in the year ending in March 2011. If your income is 40% below this, after adjusting for rising prices since then, you are classed as living in absolute poverty is the number of people whose income is 40% below the average income individual is considered to be in relative poverty if they are living in a household with an income below 60% of the typical UK is a measure of whether those in the lowest income households are keeping pace with the growth of incomes in the population as a whole.
