By Conor Sharkey
THE Chief Executive of Strabane District Council has said he believes plans to streamline Northern Ireland's 26 councils can get back on track.
Environment Minister Edwin Poots dropped a bombshell last week when, in a leaked letter, he revealed that the plans to slash 26 councils to 11 could yet collapse.
Mr Poots's department is overseeing the Review of Public Administration, but in the letter he warned that failure to agree new council boundaries could mean he may not get the necessary legislation through by the end of this year.
He predicted this could lead to the collapse of the whole local government reform programme which was meant to save the Executive more than £400m over the next 25 years.
On Monday, Sinn Féin described Mr Poots' revelation as a "disgraceful attempt to gerrymander" the council boundaries in his own constituency of Lisburn. And locally, MP Pat Doherty said the DUP would not be allowed to hold the RPA process to ransom.
But on Tuesday night, Strabane's Council Chief Executive Philip Faithfull said it was no time for blame or accusations. It was, he said, too serious an issue to let slip at this late stage.
Mr Faithfull said that failure to agree on Council boundaries could force the process back four years. Igniting enthusiasm for the Council shake-up after that would be difficult, he said.
He added however that he did believe the situation could yet be resolved.
"It is disappointing that it has gone down this track but I do feel it will be resolved," he told councillors.
Vowing to block the DUP "ultimatum" Pat Doherty said: " There is obviously a major "conflict of interest issue" at play here when the Minister supposedly responsible for local government reform threatens the entire process of reform unless he gets his own way in terms of being able to gerrymander an electoral boundary affecting his very own constituency.
"The Minister is attempting to usurp the finally balanced recommendations of the Independent Boundary Commission for narrow political interests, but this attempt will be firmly blocked by Sinn Fein," Mr Doherty said.
Castlederg Ulster Unionist Ryan Moses also had harsh words for Minister Poots, accusing him of trying to operate double standards.
Mr Moses said: "When the issue of Boundaries was first discussed in 2007, it was the then DUP Environment Minster, Arlene Foster, who changed the legislation and removed the provision to take into account community identity when deciding the boundaries of the new councils. As a result, Mrs Foster has not only doomed Unionism in certain areas but has also removed any basis for her colleague to argue on - he cannot say the boundary needs changed because the community identifies more with Lisburn than Belfast.
"I would say, however, that when the DUP do another u-turn to get their own way and community identity is taken into account to suit Mr Poots, then the same discretion be applied to all boundaries. I have made it very clear that both Castlederg and Newtownstewart identify more with Omagh rather than Strabane and should be included in the Omagh District Council area.
"Although the local DUP have made no representation on this at any time, we as Ulster Unionists value our community identity and have made representation to the Boundaries Commissioner to this effect from day one," Mr Moses added.
