Veteran councillor in MBE letter row

VETERAN local representative Price McConaghy has, seven years on, slammed his own Council for not sending him a letter of congratulations when he was honoured by The Queen.

He was speaking at a meeting of Moyle Council last week when Ulster Unionist councillor Willie Graham asked the Council to send a letter of congratulations to the Greenlight Gateway group in Ballycastle who were recently awarded The Queen's Award for Voluntary Service, the MBE for volunteer groups.

"Ballycastle should be very proud," Cllr Graham said and asked for a letter to be sent to the Gateway group and Ulster Unionist councillor Helen Harding agreed the award was excellent.

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Cllr McConaghy also agreed but then asked why the Council congratulated some people by letter and not others.

When asked by other councillors what he meant, Cllr McConaghy elaborated: "They missed me. I got a letter from every other Council in Northern Ireland" but not Moyle.

He was awarded an MBE in the Queen's New Year's Honours List in 2003 for services to local government.

And he said he even received letters from the Republic of Ireland, England, Scotland and Wales but no letter came from the Council headquarters at Sheskburn House in Ballycastle.

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Cllr Graham said perhaps the situation could be amended and belated congratulations could be sent but Cllr McConaghy said he didn't want a letter now as it is too late.

DUP councillor David McAllister said if it was him he would not take a letter of congratulations now.

Meanwhile, SDLP councillor Catherine McCambridge wished to be associated with Cllr Graham's congratulations regarding the Greenlight Gateway award as she said the group has done good work.

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