By Joe McCann
A BENCH is to be installed by Ards and North Down Council in memory of Bangor teenager Jaidyn Rice who was knocked down and killed in July 2025.
The decision was taken at a recent meeting of the council’s Environment Committee when politicians also paid tribute to the seven other lives which were lost on roads in the borough in 2025, including 12 year-old Portaferry boy Lucas Trainor who was knocked down and killed on the same night Jaidyn died.
The bench plan was proposed by Mayor Gillian McCollum and councillor Pete Wray, who knew Jaidyn through her work as a youth leader at DICE Futures.
Mrs McCollum said the loss of Jaidyn was deeply felt across Clandeboye.
“With her passing, the community had lost not only a young life, but a role model, a leader and a shining source of light for so many young people in that area,” she said.
“At just 16 years of age, Jaidyn had already made an extraordinary impact. She had forged a reputation locally as dynamic youth leader with the Dice Project, where her empathy and her leadership and her natural compassion stood out. She was entrusted with responsibility far beyond her years because the people around her recognised that she had an instinctive ability to bring people together and to encourage confidence and lift others up.”
The Mayor said since her death her family have ‘worked tirelessly’ engaging with many bodies in a bid to improve road safety.
Mrs McCollum said the agreement to create the bench was the result of the discussions the council had had with members of Jaidyn’s family.
The bench will also have a built in QR code which people can scan and will link directly to the council’s ‘Here to Help’ app, which provides information for a large range of services across the borough, including mental health, addiction, domestic abuse, housing and emergency contacts as well as links to the Samaritans, Lifeline and the police and other community groups.
Mr Wray said Jaidyn was very kind and people always say how she wanted to help others. “But also she appreciated the help that she got from other people and I think that that’s probably why she spent the last couple of years of her life being so active in the Cadets and in the DICE programme,” he said. “She wanted other people to know that there was help available for them.”
Tributes were paid by numerous councillors, including alderman Trevor Cummings who praised Jaidyn’s work with the Cadets and councillor Alistair Cathcart who said although he had never met Jaidyn, her loss had been both a tragedy for her family and the wider community.
In an emotional tribute, Alderman Naomi Armstrong- Cotter said her heart went out to Jaidyn’s family. “I think it’s just so lovely that something will be in place, so that the lives that she would have touched may still be touched through this memorial,” she said.
Also paying tribute, councillor Joe Boyle said he was certain every member of the committee felt what a devastating loss it had been for the community and also paid tribute to Lucas Trainor from Portaferry who was killed on the same night as Jaidyn.
The details surrounding the bench and its erection will now go before the full council for approval.
