Community Festival In Doubt

[Terry Hoey]

Terry Hoey of the Palmerston Residents Association says the event planned for August 2009, the Communitywatch Community Policing Festival was to take place on 22nd August 09 is now in great danger of not going ahead as expected due to a funding pitfall. The Residents Association had linked up with their community policing team to stage an event in the Inverary Playing Feilds in Sydenham, this event would have helped the community forge vital links with our community policing team in the area and would have allowed our young people to see what is involved in community policing. This event would have involved other agencies to help with drug abuse, alcohol abuse, anti social behaviour and racial abuse.

It is now almost impossible for the association to raise the funds required to stage this event, the association plans to stage an event in 2010, the 09 festival was to find the pitfalls and we seem to have come up with one very early in the proceedings as we depend on Community Funding for events like this, it flags up just how community funding is not made available or set aside to stage events that would bring our community in closer working relationships with our community policing teams. Yet it is expected that our community policing teams should somehow forge links within the community and its young people.

Terry Hoey of the Palmerston Residents Association had also applied for funding for a second project, to take place in Sydenham and this also was turned down. Once more showing that you cannot depend on funding at any time and the need to seek funding from other sponsors is vital if you want to make things happen.Terry would like to thank Belfast Community Safety Partnership for taking the time to process the associations applications for funding for the Communitywatch Communitypolicing Festival and the Summer Splash 2009