BRO leaves Belfast Community Groups in the lurch

West Belfast community workers are furious with the Belfast Regeneration Office (BRO) after a number of funding applications for much needed projects based in the Twinbrook and Poleglass areas of West Belfast were rejected or deferred over recent months.

The applications are crucial to local groups because EU funding for their work can only be drawn down when mainstream agencies like the BRO agree to "match" the funding offer.

Una Gillespie, of the West Belfast Economic Forum, says that the BRO is an "unaccountable body, which is failing in its duties to the most deprived in society.

"The fact is that the dissatisfaction is widespread throughout West Belfast. BRO does not give proper reasons for its decisions. It is not properly accountable to the public and there is no transparency. If this is the most deprived area in the North then that should be reflected in the approach of government agencies."

And newly-elected Sinn Féin assembly member Michael Ferguson has vowed to challenge the refusal to support funding applications has demanded a meeting with the DSD to ensure that the failures are rectified.