News

Council Meets with Education Minister

15 August 2007

A delegation from North Down Borough Council met this week with the Education Minister, Caitriona Ruane, to discuss the future of public sector jobs at Rathgael House in Bangor, which are under threat as part of the Government's Workplace 2010 proposals.

The cross-party delegation consisted of the Mayor, Alliance councillor, Stephen Farry, Ulster Unionist Party councillor Marion Smith and Councillor Alex Easton from the Democratic Unionist Party.

Workplace 2010 is the Executive's scheme for the modernisation of the Civil Service estate. It is proposed that this be delivered through a major Public Finance Initiative (PFI) scheme. It may cover as many as 20,000 of the 29,000 civil service jobs in Northern Ireland. There are proposals to relocate the Department of Education and Department of Finance and Personnel jobs on the Rathgael site to Belfast.

Speaking after the meeting, the Mayor, Councillor Stephen Farry stated:

“The Minister gave us a fair hearing and was very keen to stress that no final decisions had been with respect to both Workplace 2010 and the future of Department of Education jobs at the Rathgael site. While this is encouraging, it is clear, nonetheless, that there is a strong push to move jobs out of Bangor into Belfast so that other jobs can be relocated to the west of Northern Ireland.

As a Council, we are determined to do what we can to resist this. These current jobs are an important driver for our local economy. We want to maximise sustainable jobs in our own community rather than being a commuter town for Belfast.

There is a strong political desire for the decentralisation of jobs. However, it is an absolute myth that North Down is saturated with public sector jobs at the expense of other parts of Northern Ireland. We actually have one of the lowest proportions of locally-based employment in the public sector across Northern Ireland. While many local people work for the government, most commute into Belfast. Therefore, it is critical that the retention of jobs in Bangor is treated as part of any such decentralisation. It is wrong for the government to label Bangor as part of a Greater Stormont, which would mask the effect of what would be in effect a net centralisation of jobs into Belfast.

Having recently met with the Union representatives of the Rathgael workforce, we were very keen to stress that the vast majority of personnel wish to stay in North Down. Indeed, there is a waiting list of over 700 civil servants who have actually requested a transfer to Bangor.

Officials at North Down Borough Council are available to have discussions with civil servants to work out detailed options to facilitate the upgrade of civil service buildings in Bangor to allow the retention of jobs locally."

Councillor Marion Smith added:

"I was pleased to have the opportunity to speak to the Minister regarding the workforce at Rathgael House. I stressed that we were talking about a workforce of 570 jobs in the Department of Education, a large percentage of which are women and part-time workers. Unfortunately, as is usual in such matters, it is the vulnerable who suffer; they are swallowed up into statistics and the financial upset and stress of either losing a job or having to travel to a different location is forgotten.

I stressed that not only would the local economy suffer but, if the transfer were to take place to Stormont Estate or elsewhere, there is no money in the pipeline to build a road structure via Craigantlet to accommodate the extra traffic. As anyone who travels the Belfast to Bangor road regularly knows well, traffic hold ups and delays are common during rush hour. While we were provided with an economic appraisal I would like to see a social and in particular an environmental appraisal on the current proposal.

North Down is perceived as the gold coast yet the Department of Education is situated in an area of deprivation. North Down cannot afford to lose any jobs in this area let alone the suggested figure of 570.

I certainly intend to pursue this particular issue and make sure North Down's voice is heard.

The Minister met with us today but only time will tell if the Department of Education will be allowed to remain in Bangor and that equality for those in North Down delivered."

Councillor Alex Easten added:

"This was an important meeting to stress the concerns we have for the hundreds of jobs that could be potentially at risk in North Down. It is important to stress that with the possible displacement of so many jobs to Belfast the road network will be unable to cope and with so many
staff having to travel without the supporting transport infrastructure, you will find that many staff will find it hard to cope with this. It is also vitally important that any decision is
based on a North Down basis and not on a Belfast basis, these are the only Civil service jobs in North Down and they must be kept in North Down"

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