We need better and not bitter politics, says SDLP's McDade

He said: “For far too long our council politics have been bitter, sterile and divisive when we could have been making life better for local people.

"We need new politics, better politics, more sensible politics instead party bickering and sectarian point-scoring.

“It was the old, divisive politics that brought us this unnecessary by-election at a cost of 30,000 to the ratepayers. The DUP caused it but now they are not even standing. They are leaving the road open to the TUV and that is certainly not going to give us better politics. We need change and we can turn this by-election into an opportunity to get it.

“What we want and need are representatives who will co-operate across party lines for the betterment of the whole community, who want the whole community to be represented on every committee and have a voice in every decision. We need an end to the them-and-us mentality that blocks every move for progress in case ‘the other side’ gets some marginal advantage.

“If we vote for the same people, the same parties, the same bitter politics, we will get more of the same. If we want things to change we have to vote for change.”