By Julie Waters
A SENIOR council official has refuted the suggestion that local councillors were being ‘bounced’ into hosting the Fleadh Fringe event without prior consultation.
DUP councillor Colin Kennedy raised a number of concerns about the proposed Fleadh Fringe event due to be held on the same day as the 73rd Ulster Championships of the Pipe Bands on August 1st.
Mr Kennedy said the allocation of £40,000 in the rates setting process for the Fleadh Fringe event could create ‘ill feeling’ with other local community groups whose applications for council funding had not been successful.
Mr Kennedy said: “In recent years officers have informed us there is a reduced amount of money to hold events. There are many groups in the borough and we are here to represent the people of Ards and North Down.”
He said that many people ‘have sought to run events and are not able to get funding from the council’ and then ‘all of sudden £40,000 can be found for an event’. The Newtownards councillor said that ‘scoping work’ had been carried out by council officers ahead of the Fleadh Fringe event and asked ‘why was the committee not informed this work was taking place?’ He said it was ‘disappointing we are being bounced into this’.
DUP councillor Jennifer Gilmour also expressed concern that the request for a £40,000 budget had ‘come out of nowhere’ when there were other groups and organisations within the borough who were struggling for funding. She asked for more information about the funding and if the increased cost was due to the council having to outsource the running of the event.
The Bangor West councillor also asked if any consideration was given to hosting the fringe event at another time so it ‘didn’t clash with the pipe bands’ as holding the two events on separate dates would ‘maximise the people coming into Bangor for two events rather than the one day’.
Brian Dorrian, the council’s Place and Prosperity director, said he wanted to make it clear that ‘we haven’t bounced anything into the committee’ and stressed the proposal for the two music events was brought before the committee when they had the full details and budget.
He said a request for £40,000 funding as part of the rates setting process had been made for the Fleadh Fringe event and the council allocated funding ‘the best we can’ to events across the borough.
Mr Dorrian stressed that ‘it was entirely in the hands of the council to decide whether it [the Fleadh Fringe] goes ahead’.
The director further explained the council did not have the capacity to run another major event inhouse and event management services would have to be procured for the Fleadh Fringe.
Addressing car parking concerns, Sharon Mehaffey council’s head of tourism, said the council wanted to work with Translink and were considering park and ride options, but operational details could not be agreed until the event proposal had been approved.
