Everyone has a right to a home

Workers Party representative Gemma Weir has hit out strongly at attempts to intimidate residents of the Felden area in north Belfast and has called for a ‘united community response’ to recent threats.

‘There can be no excuse and no justification for the intimidating and sectarian graffiti that has been daubed on walls around the new Felden housing development, or for the flags on lamp posts at the entrance to the estate’, she said.

‘People have a right to live peacefully, free from threat wherever they choose to set up home. There can be no exceptions.  Along with Party colleagues I have been delivering that message in a leaflet drop in Felden, Graymount, Bawnmore and surrounding areas this weekend’, Gemma said

‘In recent months I have also held a number of meetings with local groups and agencies to discuss the best ways to counter these threats and to help re-assure residents and families.

The best way we can stand up to sectarianism and intimidation is to unite in support of all the families in Felden”, stated Gemma

 ‘There can be no room for those who seek to bully and pressurise people out of their homes and out of their neighbourhoods. That message must come from the entire local community’.

‘The Workers Party will work with anyone and everyone who opposes sectarianism, stands up to bully boys and believes that people have a right to a home in the area of their choice – regardless of their beliefs, their ethnic background or their political opinions, Gemma concluded .