'˜Delighted' Hale says thanks to voters

Alderman Paul Rankin and Brenda Hale MLA with Dromore High Student Becky Thompson, who held a coffee morning in Dromore's Banbridge Road Presbyterian Church to help raise funds for a school trip to Kenya.

Newly re-elected Lagan Valley MLA Brenda Hale has cheered the DUP's success at the polls while at the same time lamenting the loss locally of former Assembly member Jonathan Craig.

Delighted, she said, to have been returned to Stormont with what she called “a substantially increased personal vote from 2011”, she added: “I am humbled by the trust that the people have placed in me to continue to represent them and with God’s help I will endeavour to do my best to repay that trust.

“I would wish to place on record a massive thank-you to my team of helpers during this election campaign and to all those who voted for me on polling day.

“We were very disappointed to see Jonathan Craig lose out on transfers and we all wish him well for the future.

“The DUP remains overwhelmingly the lead party in Lagan Valley and in Northern Ireland.

“We will seek to use our mandate to keep Northern Ireland moving forward, secure within the Union.”