PRESS STATEMENT – PRESS STATEMENT – PRESS STATEMENT

IMMEDIATE RELEASE

SDLP MLA BURNS: COMMUNITY NEEDS TO USE RAF ALDERGROVE
 

SDLP South Antrim MLA Thomas Burns said the housing and social facilities at RAF Aldergrove are needed by the people of Northern Ireland and should not be used for other military purposes.

He said: “The closure of RAF Aldergrove and relocation of the RAF unit to England is a significant blow to the local community. The offer of relocation to Oxford is hardly going to be attractive to many local civilian staff. There could be 100 job losses and every civilian employee must be given a local reemployment opportunity or a good redundancy package.

“There will also be a negative impact on local schools and businesses, with so many families moving out of the country. 

“However, the relocation will not be complete for nearly 18 months and we now have a golden opportunity to make this work positively for the local community.

“The British military authorities should convene an early meeting of MPs, MLAs and councillors to discuss the best way forward. There is no gain to the overall community from relocation of other military units from Massereene Barracks and this does not make a lot of sense to me. The army units pencilled in for transfer to Aldergrove should stay at Massereene.

“There are 600 or so homes of varying size at RAF Aldergrove which could meet a lot of demand for social and affordable housing in the area. This could be a great mixed tenure development and I would like to see the Housing Executive and housing associations getting involved in this debate.

“Furthermore, any available industrial land at Aldergrove must be given to Invest NI immediately and this development opportunity should be sold hard at the upcoming investment conference in May.”

ENDS