Councillors back Greenlight’s ‘People’s Millions’ bid

At the main monthly meeting in Ballycastle the first to offer her good wishes to the ‘Space 2 Grow’ bid was Sinn Fein councillor Margaret Anne McKillop.

She asked the Council to support the bid and to put it on their website.

Council Chairperson, Cllr Padraig McShane (Independent), also backed the Greenlight entry and urged councillors to back it through their facebook sites.

Should they win, Greenlight aim to provide a ‘fresh air outdoor gym’, allotments and a growing, cooking and training programme.

The big date is today, Tuesday June 28, when the Greenlight project will be on the UTV news bulletin up against Praxis NI and the project which wins the most votes will win the £60,000.

The phone number will be on the People’s Millions website and in the Daily Mirror on the day and on UTV.

Cllr McShane said the People’s Millions project is a “wonderful adventure” for Greenlight Gateway who he said are working with a team of up to 30 people.

Cllr Willie Graham (Ulster Unionist) said he backed everything that had been said.

“I have been on the Committee of Greenlight Gateway and they have done wonderful things. They are to be congratulated,” he said.

He said the organisation gives people with disabilities a “new start in life”.

SDLP councillor Donal Cunningham said Greenlight Gateway is an “inspirational” group and Cllr Robert McIlroy (DUP) said: “As a Council we would fully support all they have done.”

The Greenlight Gateway website says: ‘Greenlight Gateway’s Space to Grow project, if successful, will turn a derelict space in Ballycastle into a thriving social enterprise featuring a fresh air fitness outdoor gym, allotments and a growing, cooking and training programme and an innovative Jubilee Dream garden.

‘The project owned by its members and adults with learning disabilities - run in partnership with the Northern Health and Social Care Trust, local schools and community groups - will help to improve the health and well-being of people with learning disabilities and mental ill health and the wider community.’

The People’s Millions website says: ‘To help Space to Grow win funding you must vote by phone between 9am and midnight, 28 June 2011. The voting phone number will be advertised here and in the Daily Mirror on the day. A short video about this project and the competing project will also be shown on the ITV regional news between 6.00pm and 6.30pm.’