Meeting Details

Members should declare any financial and non-financial interests they have in the items of business for consideration, identifying the relevant agenda item and the nature of their interest.

That this council as soon a practically possible enters into meaningful discussions with the traders of the MUDC area, to agree and implement suitable reduced car parking charges as soon as the Covid restrictions are lifted, whereby re-engaging and encouraging footfall to our local towns and in so doing assisting to sustain our business’s, shops & restaurants etc.

 

That this Council welcomes the recent announcement of a £500 Covid Disruption payment for students studying full-time Higher Education courses; notes the exclusion of full-time students studying Further Education courses and students studying Higher Education courses in the south of Ireland or in Britain is unfair; acknowledges the difficulty of part time students facing financial hardship also needs to be addressed; and calls on the Minister for the Economy to address the inequalities and ensure that all students who are currently excluded from the Covid Disruption Payment receive the £500 payment.

 

That Mid Ulster District Council acknowledges the grave situation our Town Centres are enduring, resulting in many small retail units having lost and others facing losing tenants in the coming months. That Council writes to the Minister of Finance in relation to vacant rates on retail premises in Town Centres, urging him to provide further assistance on top of the current 50% vacant rates for the next financial year,  in order to help stop the trend of converting small retail units into domestic accommodation. This will help preserve retail space for future businesses.

 

This council condemns the recent threats made against local Journalists and recognises the importance of trustworthy, relevant, impartial news as an important bulwark of democracy, particularly during a health crisis.  This council notes with alarm the unprecedented strain placed on the News industry following the lockdown period, with wide scale cuts and redundancies proposed across the sector.  This council supports the NUJ’s News Recovery Plan aims at tackling the existing fault-lines in the sector with a series of measures intended to reconfigure the news industry and ensure it is firmly rooted in the public good. That we support the proposal to increase government investment in public interest news; through arms-length funding mechanisms, with the condition that no public funding is given to any company making redundancies, paying out dividends or resisting trade union recognition.  Other measures include:

Tax breaks for news subscriptions
Support for new media start-ups
A wide scale media literacy campaign to tackle disinformation and fake news

We also extend our support to public service broadcasting in UK/Ireland and the principle of independent oversight, free from government interference.