Years to ‘rebuild what has been broken’ after Ballymena unrest, warns minister

By Nick Lester, Chief Lords Reporter

A minister has warned it will take years to “rebuild what has been broken” in Northern Ireland following violent unrest that has left communities across the region “very scared”.

Labour frontbencher Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent said the scenes of disorder in Ballymena had “no place” in Northern Ireland and branded the attacks on police officers “wholly unacceptable”.

Responding to an urgent question in Parliament following a second night of disturbances in the Co Antrim town, she said that Northern Ireland Secretary Hilary Benn hoped to visit the area in the coming days.

Lady Anderson was ed by other peers at Westminster in condemning “the appalling acts of racist thuggery” seen on the streets of Ballymena.

But she also heard concerns that the PSNI does not have enough officers and faced calls for additional funding.

Police said their officers came under sustained attack over a number of hours in Ballymena on Tuesday night, with petrol bombs, heavy masonry, bricks and fireworks hurled at them.

The PSNI deployed riot police, fired plastic baton rounds and used water cannon as well as dog units as part of its response to the disturbances.

Police also reported “sporadic disorder” occurred in Newtownabbey and Carrickfergus, as well as incidents in north Belfast.

It came after similar violent disorder around Clonavon Terrace in Ballymena on Monday night, following an earlier peaceful protest which was organised in of the family of a girl who was the victim of an alleged sexual assault in the area. Two teenage boys, who spoke to a court through a Romanian interpreter, have been charged.

Lady Anderson said: “The recent scenes of civil disorder which we have seen in Ballymena have no place in Northern Ireland.

“The attacks on police officers as they work to keep people safe and on property are wholly unacceptable.

“I would like to express my sincere thanks to the PSNI, the Northern Ireland Fire and Rescue Service and the Northern Ireland Ambulance Service, who have worked in difficult conditions over the past few days to keep people safe.

“My thoughts and prayers are with those officers still receiving treatment, and with the communities across Northern Ireland who woke up this morning very scared.”

The minister told the Lords: “ would have seen, as I have, horrendous images of what’s actually happened within the community.

“This is not something that is now going to be solved tomorrow.

“Community engagement efforts will have to continue for months and years to rebuild what has been broken over the last 24 hours.”

She added: “Northern Ireland Office officials have been meeting and engaging with community groups and will continue to do so.”

She welcomed the funding of £11 million announced by the Chancellor in Wednesday’s spending review for community cohesion projects in Northern Ireland.

Former Northern Ireland minister Lord Caine said: “We too condemn unreservedly the appalling acts of racist thuggery in Ballymena for which there can be not a single shred of justification.

“There is nothing remotely British about wrapping oneself in the Union flag, attacking migrants, forcing people from their homes and scapegoating entire communities anywhere in the United Kingdom.”

Former police ombudsman for Northern Ireland Baroness O’Loan said: “I live in Ballymena and it’s awful to see what happened there. I think it must have taken enormous courage for officers to face the petrol bombs and other missiles which were hurled at them.

“I salute that courage, and I condemn absolutely what happened on the streets of our town.”

But the independent crossbencher pointed out the PSNI only had 6,200 officers and numbers had failed to keep pace with those in England and Wales.

Lady O’Loan said: “We don’t have enough police officers.

“PSNI still face national security risks and police them, and they are still at risk of murder and attack every day.”

She called on the Government to provide “real” ring-fenced funding “in order to allow our police service to recruit more officers so that officers may police safely, and the people of Ballymena in Northern Ireland may be safe”.

Responding, Lady Anderson said policing was a devolved matter and it was up to the Northern Ireland Executive how it allocated funding, which recognised the special status of Northern Ireland.

Labour former Northern Ireland secretary Lord Reid of Cardowan also urged the Government to look at ways of providing additional funding to police in the region.

The peer said: “It seems to me the logic of our position when the PSNI are confronted with at least two major issues that are not devolved issues but are actually UK-wide issues, which is the legacy and secondly counter-terrorism, that there may be some way of supplementing the normal grants, in view of the fact that these are UK-wide issues.

“I know it’s not easy but I would be obliged if the minister was to at least seek to inject that into the conversations with the Secretary of State.”