Alan Chambers
North Down · Ulster Unionist Party · Northern Ireland
“<BR /> <BR />A relatively recent piece of important character that was added to the village some years ago was the addition of a number of trees along Main Street.”
“It is my pleasure and privilege to present a petition signed by more than 1,500 people calling on the Department for Infrastructure to drop plans to chop down a number of mature street trees in Main Street, Groomsport. <BR /> <BR />Groomsport is a beautiful village with a strong community spirit.”
“Indeed, in the past week, it has been adjudged to be the best-kept town on the island of Ireland. It has many outstanding characteristics, including three lovely beaches with clean and pollution-free bathing water; a well-sheltered harbour that is reputed to have been first constructed by the Vikings; a modern children's playground; and t…”
“Minister, I sent a question for written answer in May 2025. You told me that your officials had identified a problem on the A48 in November 2024 and that a works order had been issued.”
“The Department's approach to the problem, however, has been to fire up the chainsaws. That is a shameful and unacceptably lazy plan. There are many engineering solutions that do not involve such crude environmental vandalism. Government policy, rather than to chop down healthy mature specimens, is to encourage more tree planting.”
“For many, the ability to start or grow a family is a major priority; for others, it is not a priority at all. When fertility problems stand in the way of that dream, the emotional toll can be immense. There has already been reference to the commitment in NDNA, which was one reason why my party very much welcomed that agreement.”
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Every one of 1,411 lines we hold for Alan Chambers, in date order, each linked to its source. Free to read, in full, without an account. Page 27 of 29.
“Is it any wonder that there was considerable suspicion about the amendment that was being rushed through the House last Monday? <BR /> <BR />Last February, there was not the normal Committee scrutiny of the motion to suspend the RHI regulations. It will take the investigation of a full public inquiry to find out the full truth of what was going on behind the scenes in January and February. We have heard contrasting stories of bullying and shouting as Minister Bell attempted to close the scheme early.”
“<BR /> <BR />This regulation has been brought to the House by the Minister with a haste that I suspect has more than one eye on the public judgement on the RHI scandal. The House was invited last Monday to pass it into law with total disregard for due process or scrutiny by the Economy Committee and the official Examiner. Where is the precedent for such a manoeuvre? Surprisingly, it is the draft Renewable Heat Incentive Schemes (Amendment) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2016, which was laid in the Business Office on 8 February 2016, a mere four working days before the plenary session at which it was considered. It is truly amazing that this scheme has twice had to short-circuit the normal protocols of this Chamber.”
“In reality, MLAs were seeking the continuation of a properly revised and tiered RHI scheme that had the proper cost controls applied since the previous November through to the end of the financial year on 31 March 2016. That would have permitted a controlled wind-down. It is quite clear from Hansard that members of the Committee for Enterprise, Trade and Investment, especially its Chairman at that time, along with all the Members of the Assembly, felt that they were being starved of information around the scheme. It is also clear that the DUP and its, until quite recently, friend and partner in the Executive, Sinn Féin, voted as they did after that debate because they knew much more than others about this developing scandal that they hoped would simply go away.”
“It is quite clear to me that some of the subsequent comments around the vote that day have been, to put it mildly, as economical with the truth as President Trump's chief press officer has unashamedly been in the last few days.”
“I begin by referring to a subject that some Members have already placed on record during the debate, and I make no apologies about revisiting that subject, as it is part of the journey to the debate today on these regulations. During recent weeks, when the media and the Opposition parties in this Chamber performed a public service by shining a light on the RHI debacle, much play has been made of the fact that all parties in the Assembly on 15 February last year, with the exception of Sinn Féin and the DUP, voted against the statutory rule brought by then Minister Bell to suspend the scheme at the end of February. I was not serving in the Chamber at that time, but I have read the Hansard report on the debate to try to understand the background and the context of what was said and done that day.”
“Minister, is the money that you say is secured for two of the schools real money or is it subject to future budgetary constraints? Have you had any informal meetings with the schools about this?”
“Minister, as we head towards an election, no doubt you and the other candidates in North Down will be asked about the capital investment programmes that have been planned for Priory Integrated College in Holywood, St Columbanus' College in Bangor and Bangor Central Integrated Primary School.”
“<BR /> <BR />I am sure that a lot of councillors have had their ears bent; certainly, mine have been bent, not by traders but by people who are getting tickets. Even people with blue badges are getting tickets. When they ring me, they are distraught about having to pay the fines. It is a money tree. When I drive down Main Street any day, I see cars parked in it. I say to myself, "Do people not see the signs?" They park, get tickets and do not like it. I do not think that there is an overnight solution, but we have to at least put a marker down — we are doing that tonight — that we do not like the bays. The people, the traders and public representatives do not like them.”
“It worked in very close partnership with the Infrastructure Department on the public realm work. I think that there was a bit of playing around with words. The Minister said that the council had carried out all statutory consultations, with the caveat that it was through the planning process and that the council had more or less approved it. I think that the Minister was saying that the council had approved the planning application, as is its statutory duty, as it went through. No doubt the planning committee would have had no reason to turn it down, but the Minister is clutching at that as proof that the council supports the loading bays, and I do not think that that is the reality. If the council was asked the direct question, it would tell you that it was not party to agreeing to the loading bays.”
“One of the questions that I wanted to ask the Minister — I share my colleague's disappointment that the Minister is not here, although he has been pretty good at Adjournment debates in the past — was whether any of the businesses objected prior to the loading bays going in. I am not sure that there were any objections. There was the planning process as well, and I am not sure that any objections against the bays went through the planning process. Maybe people did not realise the impact or thought that they were a good idea. I am sure that the Minister thought that they were a good idea, but the reality is that they have proved to be a very bad idea. <BR /> <BR />I asked the Minister whether he had introduced the loading bays with the full approval of the council.”
“The legislation that is in place in relation to these loading bays went out to public consultation.”
“<BR /> <BR />I know that it is easy to stand up here tonight and say that the Minister should cancel this and take it away from today. The reality is that legislation and laws were passed and put in place and, as we have seen over the last couple of days, you cannot just click your fingers and change the law.”
“Mr Easton is correct. I have seen it as well. I also have photographs of lorries double-parked adjacent to the loading bay. They are completely ignoring the fact that the loading bays are there. The problem remains that, if we take these loading bays away, we will have to come up with some other method of traffic restriction to remove the scourge of the lorries double-parking in the town. The tragedy is that a lot of these businesses have back entrances and loading bays round the back, and there is no reason why the lorries cannot go round there. It might help if some legislation was brought in so that the redcoats could intervene when lorries double-park and it might help if the lorry drivers started to get parking tickets, although I am sure that they would be the next to ask us to raise a petition if that were to happen.”
“The redcoats totally ignore that and have always ignored it. If you say anything, they tell you that it is not a parking offence but an obstruction offence and that it is a matter for the PSNI. They will not interfere. That causes issues with traffic progression in the town and causes tailbacks of half a mile. The effects of a lorry being double-parked are felt half a mile away in the town, and they do it with impunity. <BR /> <BR />I have some sympathy with the Minister deciding that these loading bays might be a good idea and introducing them. The reality is that they have been a disaster. They are not being used. In reply to a question from me, he said that they have eliminated six spaces when, in fact, it is seven spaces, not that that is a huge difference. They are not performing the function for which they were placed there.”
“When they spoke to the council prior to the public realm work, they told us that we would only lose a handful of car parking spaces. I went out in good faith and sold that to people. People were saying, "We will lose a lot of car parking". I said, "No, we will only lose a handful. The Minister and the Department have told us that". The reality was that the town lost 28 car parking spaces. It went down from 162 to 134. Thankfully, the disabled parking spaces remained constant. There were 10, and they retained 10. <BR /> <BR />One of the things that they did was to introduce these loading bays. I am a motorist who uses Bangor, and I do a lot of business in Bangor daily. One of the infuriating things — all the motorists who use Main Street and High Street in Bangor will identify with this — was the double-parking of lorries.”
“Some of their staff also cottoned on that they could park all day and not get a ticket. I know that this caused tremendous strain on businesses, particularly in Abbey Street and High Street, where the shopkeepers and retailers really did depend on a turnaround to maintain their footfall. They lost that. You could see cars and vans that carry deliveries for some of the businesses in that area parked all day. That was an extremely disappointing situation. <BR /> <BR />The Department and the Minister had to be hounded to push that legislation through. I sat on the council when the committee that dealt with it pleaded with him to bring the legislation forward. It was about a year after that before he brought it forward. There was a lot of dragging of heels.”
“Thank you. The problem of car parking in Bangor and the issues around it have been compounded by the public realm work that has been undertaken in Bangor over the last couple of years. <BR /> <BR />Because of a reconfiguration of the various car parking spaces, the legislation covering them was set aside at that time and became obsolete. We actually had a period of about a year and a half when there was no legislation in relation to car parking in Main Street, Abbey Street or High Street in Bangor. That meant that you could park your car there. Although there were signs saying that you could park for only one hour and could not come back within an hour, that was not actually the case. People cottoned on very quickly. In fact, disappointingly, some of the people who cottoned on to it were those who were designated as traders.”
“Do you agree that it is not unreasonable for the First Minister to be held accountable for her bad judgement in this case?”
“Certainly, Minister, the figures that I am looking at are from your Department. If the project is not going to be completed until September 2020, as indicated by you in answers to written questions, do we have any reason to believe that the cost of the project will not continue to spiral out of control over the next three and a half years?”
“I understand that the Minister has perhaps queried the figures quoted in the EMAG report that large energy users here face electricity prices almost 60% higher than the EU 2015 median. Does that mean he is rejecting, at this point, recommendation 2 of the report?”
“Will the Minister agree with me that it is important to sustain existing retail jobs in current difficult trading circumstances? Are the Minister and the Executive committed to supporting small businesses in relation to rates review and finding ways to ease the bureaucratic burden on small businesses?”
“Will the commissioner provide an update on the engagement with mobile phone networks on improving phone signals in much of Parliament Buildings?”
“Perhaps I can help the Minister then. Does the Minister consider it acceptable that one of my constituents, an 87-year-old man with a pre-existing heart condition who collapsed in Bangor leisure centre on Saturday and displayed all the symptoms of a heart attack, had to wait 45 minutes for a first responder to attend? Indeed, the member of staff who made the 999 call had to wait for nearly 10 minutes in a queue because of the high volume of calls. Does the Minister find that acceptable?”
“I know that the residents would be prepared to get involved in a joint venture to get that road surfaced and adopted. I thank the Minister for his attendance tonight.”
“<BR /> <BR />I want to put on record something that really has nothing to do with tonight's debate but it would be remiss of me not to mention. My colleagues will be familiar with The Point, which is a street in Groomsport. It has not been adopted and is built on the coast, so it is a rocky road. It would not even take a horse and cart. Bin lorries struggle to get down it, and postmen do not want to go down it. No one wants to go down in a private car. There are about 10 houses on the road, and the residents have to endure that. The houses have been there for about 70 years, and nobody is prepared to grasp the nettle. I want to put it on record that somebody, somewhere, in this day and age needs to take responsibility for that and get it sorted out.”
“<BR /> <BR />We were told that contractors were unavailable in 2015-16. If I read that right — again, the Minister will confirm it — for a whole financial year, a contractor was not appointed to resurface, do patchwork or clean gullies. It is rather disturbing that, for a whole year, North Down got nothing done, never mind whether there was enough money there. The money was not spent, and nothing was done. I would also point out — I do not know whether councils are responsible for this — that somebody should take a robust approach to kerbsides and the amount of debris lying in them. That is a nursery for weeds for next year. Nobody seems to take a shovel and go along the kerbsides and clean up. That needs to be done, but the Minister will confirm whose responsibility it is.”
“When I asked a question, however, about statutory notices being served on landowners for allowing noxious weeds to prosper on their land, I was told that, in the last five years, 30 statutory notices were issued to landowners but only two warnings were given to Transport NI, which, as I say, is probably the biggest landowner in Northern Ireland. It concerns me a little that one Department is not prepared to face down another Department. It is a genuine concern that those noxious weeds are growing on Transport NI land, and they should be attended to. The Programme for Government talks about improving Northern Ireland as a tourist destination, but, if we allow the infrastructure to deteriorate, particularly in places such as Bangor and other coastal areas, we will not fulfil that Programme for Government aspiration.”
“<BR /> <BR />When it comes to grass cutting, I have to put it on record that the grass was cut a few weeks ago and it is probably the best cut that I have seen for a couple of years. It is unfortunate, coming into the winter, that we will not get the benefit of it. When we were in high season and looking for tourists to visit, the place looked like a jungle. In fact, I tweeted a joke about the Department appointing a couple of big game hunters to patrol the Bangor ring road because the grass was so long and God knows what was running about in it. <BR /> <BR />Following on from that, I have a bee in my bonnet about noxious weeds. Transport NI is probably the biggest landowner in Northern Ireland if you add up all the strips of land that it owns.”
“I will refer to the olden days when we had guys who went round at night and identified the lights that were out and took the appropriate action. The lights were categorised and fixed in a certain time frame. As Alec said, the responsibility now seems to fall on us, as elected Members, to get individual light numbers and report issues. As well as that, I am not sure — again, the Minister will confirm it — whether footpaths are walked in the way that they used to be by inspectors who identified defects and marked them with paint spray for repair and so forth. Some of the footpaths in and around that area — I mentioned Towerview — are just not fit for purpose. When I ask the local office to do something about it, it comes up with all sorts of excuses.”
“I know there are issues — I have identified them, and Alec has talked about them — about the timing of the traffic lights and stuff at Gransha Road, but, when I see young kids going to school, old people on Zimmers and young mothers with a toddler in a pram and a toddler by the hand crossing that road in safety, I think it is money that has been really well spent. <BR /> <BR />There a lot of the older parts of Bangor that were built maybe 40 or 50 years ago and do not seem to have had any investment in footpaths. That means in and around the Towerview area and the Ashford area. I am not too sure, but maybe the Minister can enlighten me about this so that I have a better understanding of why the issues are there and why we are here tonight having the debate.”
“There are competitions about who can find the deepest pothole in Northern Ireland. It is an endemic problem; it is not unique to North Down. Naturally enough, the Minister will appreciate that we, as representatives from North Down, will bat in our constituents' corner on this. <BR /> <BR />Before I say any more, I will acknowledge to the Minister that it is not all doom and gloom. A lot of good work is done by the local Transport NI in and around Bangor. Certainly, the huge capital investment in the Gransha Road roundabout is money that has been really well spent. It has contributed to road safety.”
“I thank my colleague Alec Easton for arranging the topic for the Adjournment debate tonight. I know he is certainly not the only one who gets complaints; I think we all get our fair share of them. <BR /> <BR />I take the point Alec has been making over recent weeks about North Down having the least amount of the cake, as it were, in the budget. I will be interested to see how the Minister responds to that before I join in any finger-pointing about it. It strikes me as a relative thing, because, when I talk to colleagues from all over the Province, they all identify the same problems. There does not seem to be anywhere that is Shangri-La with the grass being cut and the potholes being fixed. Everybody is complaining. You have only to go on Twitter and look at the photographs.”
“That is a glaring example of a good concept being undermined by maladministration and a lack of ministerial scrutiny, and it leaves me with little confidence that those in charge know what they are doing. <BR /> <BR />Six months into the new mandate, is it too much to ask the Minister and Executive to give us an indication of what they plan to do on renewable policy? Is the 40% target still achievable? Is the NIRO going to be replaced? Are we looking at the contracts for difference model? How are we going to pay for the renewable heat incentive fiasco, and is anyone going to accept responsibility for it? We have brought this motion to the Assembly in the hope that we will start to get some answers to the questions that we have raised. I commend the motion.”
“From engaging with the sector, it is clear to the Ulster Unionist Party that the renewables industry is not asking to be subsidised in perpetuity, but it needs a route to market. There is a crucial need for a mechanism that subsidises the wholesale price to enable investors to invest. At the moment, on wholesale prices alone, no one is willing to invest in any form of new generation. It is in everyone's interests to structure a route to market that is competitive and technology neutral. That way, the market brings forward the least cost generation technologies. <BR /> <BR />Above all, the Assembly and the general public need reassurance that the Executive have a long-term plan to keep the lights on. I look at what has been going on over the last few years, with the fiasco around the renewable heat incentive scandal.”
“Our motion has deliberately called upon the Executive to clarify their position on future subsidy arrangements for all forms of energy generation. That is because it has not, as some have alleged, been just the renewable sector that has been the recipient of government subsidy. Generation based on fossil fuels has been a heavy beneficiary over the years.”
“The electricity supply margin is 400MW and currently meets security standards. In terms of generation adequacy, the level is sufficient in Northern Ireland in the medium term. An accompanying graph shows Northern Ireland going into a generation deficit by 2020.”
“I was delighted to hear the Minister. He has talked about what he is going to deliver. In actual fact, he is going to deliver an awful lot of what is in our motion, but his colleagues do not seem to accept that. It concerns me when I hear Members deride and decry concerns about security of supply. It displays a blasé and complacent attitude which is all too commonplace in the ranks of the Sinn Féin/DUP coalition. I remind them that it is not just members of the official Opposition who have raised concerns. We have heard quotes today from SONI, the Utility Regulator, the CBI and respected commentators like John Simpson and Jamie Delargy. If Members on the Executive Benches do not believe the experts, I refer them to the graph on page 25 of their own draft Programme for Government consultation document.”
“No, I will not be giving way. I think I have heard enough bluster from you today.”
“I welcome his support for the interconnector. <BR /> <BR />My colleague Mr Smith highlighted security of supply, which is absolutely important. <BR /> <BR />Mr Lyons talked about the interconnector being important. It is not enough to acknowledge that we need it; we have to acknowledge that we cannot afford any delay. He demonstrated the concept of spreading the blame. He pointed the finger at the Enterprise, Trade and Investment Committee. I do not know; his attempt to spread the blame would not even fool a monkey, Mr Speaker. <BR /> <BR />Mr Frew talked about the Ulster Unionist Party showing a characteristic of real panic. I do not accept that assertion, but the actions of this Executive would cause you to have a bit of panic at times.”
“OK, sorry. <BR /> <BR />The energy deficit claim was contained in an Executive publication. Mr Storey reminded me that the best form of defence is attack, but bluster fools no one. <BR /> <BR />Mr Murphy put his cards on the table and told us immediately that he was opposed to the motion. He talked about policies that needed to be thought out, and he said that they had got to be got right. That is code for more reports and more prevarication. How much time does he need? <BR /> <BR />Mr Agnew made a significant intervention in Ms Bradley's contribution, as he did a couple of times during the debate. He added further fuel when he attributed the blame for the developing renewable heat incentive scandal on where the blame lies. <BR /> <BR />Mr Dunne supported the concerns on electricity prices for our manufacturing industry.”
“There is no plan B. <BR /> <BR />Mervyn Storey demonstrated that he is a bit touchy about criticism. He acknowledged the seriousness of the situation, but he was unable — or maybe unwilling — to answer the question from my colleague Mr Nesbitt about energy deficit, because it was contained in an Executive —”
“We also need to hear some sort of response to the reports that the previous Enterprise, Trade and Investment Committee compiled, and a response from the Department and Minister for the Economy to the EMAG report, which his predecessor commissioned to try to cover his embarrassment at the major industrial job losses announced last autumn, where the cost of energy was cited as a contributory factor, especially in the case of Michelin. <BR /> <BR />I turn now to a few of the contributions. My colleague Steve Aiken highlighted the fact that our industrialists have some of the highest prices of electricity supply in Europe. He talked about the North/South interconnector and how important that is. He said that there is no plan B. That is not his rhetoric; those were the words of the Utility Regulator, last Wednesday, to the Economy Committee.”
“It remains unanswered. <BR /> <BR />It is time that the Assembly said that we need and demand answers. We need to know what policy direction the Minister and the Executive want to take us on with renewables and the decarbonisation agenda. We need to know what action the Executive intend to take to tackle the crippling energy costs that our major industrial users have been complaining about for years.”
“My colleague Steve Aiken submitted a question for written answer on 10 October:”
“The EMAG report was received by the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment on 5 April 2016 — almost eight months ago. In May, my colleague Robbie Butler asked the new Minister for the Economy for his assessment of the recommendations of the Energy and Manufacturing Advisory Group. The answer he received, three months later, on 22 August from the Minister was:”
“I remind Members that that was a report that the former Minister, Mr Bell, commissioned after major job losses last year and in the light of complaints about lack of action to tackle the high energy prices faced by our large industrial users. <BR /> <BR />How did the Executive respond to an expert report that they had commissioned in such a hurry? Interestingly, the chair of EMAG, Mr David Dobbin of Dale Farm, is reported in the November edition of 'agendaNi' as saying:”
“Thank you, Mr Speaker. Reports on energy and electricity are not in short supply. We have reports, inquiries and investigations. The ETI Committee had three volumes in its inquiry in the last mandate. Currently, the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee at Westminster is holding an inquiry, and it recently held hearings in Northern Ireland. Despite all the reports and inquiries, it is not at all clear to me what the policy of the Department or the Executive is on generation, security of supply, price control and renewables. <BR /> <BR />There were recommendations in the ETI Committee reports in November 2013 and February 2014 on the security of supply and electricity prices. More recently, there were 24 recommendations in the Energy and Manufacturing Advisory Group (EMAG) report.”
“Can the Minister confirm whether his trip to America at the start of this month included any meetings, even in his own time, to do with his personal interests as a director of Belfast Media Group Limited or with the Sinn Féin party?”
“Minister, I can confirm that this was an event enjoyed by visitors and locals alike. We look forward to its return. Will the Minister take this opportunity to acknowledge and compliment the work of volunteers and venue owners who make events like this happen?”
“You will have your opportunity to speak. <BR /> <BR />Get a tourism strategy on the books now.”