UUP fight on ‘platform of 
restoring prosperity’

The candidates will be Cllr Alexander Redpath (Downshire West), Alderman Jim Dillon (Downshire West), Robbie Butler (Killultagh), Tim Mitchell (Lisburn South), Cllr Brian Bloomfield (Lisburn North), Cllr James Baird (Downshire East) and Alex Swann (Downshire East).

Commenting on the nominations, which closed on Tuesday, Lisburn Councillor Alexander Redpath commented: “Lagan Valley UUP is fielding a great field of candidates with a good mix of experience and youth. We are confident of significantly increasing our tally of Councillors in the Lisburn area.

We are fighting this election on a platform of restoring prosperity to Lisburn. We will support decreased parking charges in Lisburn when the council is granted powers over DRD off-street car parks. We are pleased that our UUP Minister Danny Kennedy has shown leadership on this issue by slashing parking rates to £1 for 5 hours in off street car parks and by announcing a freeze on on-street parking charges.

We will support the development of a John Lewis store at Sprucefield. Our party leader Mike Nesbitt MLA has publicly backed a John Lewis store at Sprucefield. We believe the main issues facing this development are our antiquated planning system and protectionist planning policies designed to keep big developments in Belfast. The UUP is committed to reforming the planning process and repealing Alex Attwood’s planning policy on bulky goods.

Finally we will continue to fight to see the Maze site developed in an appropriate manner. We will push for this site to be developed quickly for projects that bring an economic benefit to Lisburn. We will continue to oppose any efforts to build a terrorist shrine at the Maze which would blight the site for other development.”