Moving Dervock forward in a positive way

Inspector David Anderson and Sergeant Gary McMaster joined MLA, Mervyn Storey, at the Commuinity House where eight people, representing Dervock Youth Committee, got the opportunity to quiz the visitors on a range of issues from community facilites, policing, community relations and next year’s centenary events in memory of Olympian KK McArthur.

In some revealing comments, Mr. Story responded to a call for a new Community Centre by suggesting that the local school could be more used and that it would be more cost effective to fund a caretaker’s wages for extra use than building a new community centre.

Mr. Storey said the council had set aside half a million pounds to improve facilities in the area including Dervock, but he said that there was a need to bring together community leaders to decide options.

There was a general feeling that not enough money was being spent in the village by the council and that the perception was that it was ‘second best’.

Answering questions about anti-social behaviour, Inspector Anderson urged those involved in the Youth Committee to speak to those engaged in anti-social behaviour as well as encouraging people to provide them with more information.

The message from the PSNI was that Dervock was regarded as a village with much community spirit and urged people to pull together.

Dirty roads, the Peer Leadership Programme and confidence in local PSNI was also under discussion, but the message from the three visitors was that Dervock had no worse problems that other areas; indeed other areas were considered worse, but that they were trying to take Dervock forward with a supportive community.