Cosgrove urges UDA / Beyond Conflict group to engage with Decommissioning Body
Carrickfergus Ulster Unionist Councillor Mark Cosgrove has made an appeal to the UDA /Beyond Conflict group to urgently engage with the decommissioning body with a view to full decommissioning in the very near future.
Councillor Cosgrove said, “the ordinary people of Carrickfergus and the rest of South East Antrim do not want people being shot in our communities. They want jobs, peace, affordable housing, quality leisure facilities and general prosperity, not mobs of young men roaming the streets.
“In Carrickfergus we have completely turned our economy around following the unemployment disasters which beset our local industry in the relatively recent past. It is ironic that at a time when we have our lowest ever unemployment, have invested £millions to produce a world class leisure complex for our town, created the Carrickfergus Development Company to implement a vision of an historic family day out, that we appear on the regional and national news with scenes of sinister mobs and the forces of law and order being shot at.
“The people of Carrickfergus do not want to return to the days of despair, death and destruction. The people of Carrickfergus and Northern Ireland have moved on. If those involved in loyalist paramilitarism genuinely want to share in creating much needed community infrastructure, they should be encouraged to do so – as long as they decommission and disband their paramilitary structures. The basic rule of any democratic society applies – anyone who wants to can work for the people within the law. We cannot promote Carrickfergus in the way we need to if the scenes of violence continue.
“Along with my colleagues I am determined to continue to seek to realise the massive potential of our beautiful, historic town.”