Belfast: 'Budget constraints' mean no extra cash for alley gates

Alley gates have been put up to protect the areas behind homes and businesses in parts of Belfast

"Extraordinary constraints" on the Department of Justice's budget mean it is not able to provide extra money to pay for alley gates in Belfast.

That is according to a letter to Belfast City Council from the department's permanent secretary.

The department was asked to provide £500,000 towards alley gates to match the sum being spent by the council.

In August BBC News NI revealed that about 500 streets in Belfast were on a waiting list for gates.

They are often put up in an attempt to reduce incidents of anti-social behaviour, crime and fly-tipping near people's homes.

The first alley gates in Belfast were erected by the council in 2006 and since then 1,081 gates have gone up on streets across the city.

But it can take 12 to 18 months for them to be erected after an application is made for a street to get them.

Each gate can cost about £2,500 to manufacture.

The council has agreed to spend £500,000 on a new round of alley gates for over 60 streets across Belfast.

More than 1,000 gates have been erected at alleyways in Belfast since 2006

But it has also relied on external funders to pay for alley gates in the past.

It had written to the Department of Justice in October 2022 asking for the department to provide an additional £500,000 to match the council's funding.

But in his response the department's permanent secretary Richard Pengelly said: "Given the ongoing priorities within the remit of the department and extraordinary constraints on our budget, the Department of Justice is not, at this time, in a position to provide funding for the alleygating programme."

Mr Pengelly said that department had helped the council in the past to fund alley gates, "albeit this has usually been on the recommendation of policing colleagues for express and pressing community protection needs".

Mr Pengelly's letter has been presented to the council's Strategic Policy and Resources Committee but is due to be discussed at the full council meeting on 1 December.

It was sent prior to Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris setting a 2022-23 budget for Stormont departments.

Some groups in Belfast, such as the 9ft In Common organisation, have suggested that an alternative to gates is needed to ensure that the city's alleys become spaces that can be used to the full by local communities.

'Beggars belief'

South Belfast SDLP councillor Gary McKeown said that it "beggars belief" that the Department of Justice did not provide the money for the gates.

"Aside from the community benefits which these gates can provide in terms of creating a space where people can socialise or grow plants and trees, at a very basic level they're aimed at reducing crime and antisocial behaviour in entries, which clearly sits squarely with the department in terms of responsibility," he said.