The Quinn report compiled by Peter Quinn Consultancy to decide if a neighbourhood building was needed. Now NO-ONE denies the need for facilities but on the basis of this report we may as well all be backward eejits who drink too much.
This report was still being name dropped by the Galliagh Development Trust until last November until in a BBC Radio interview residents pointed out to Cathal Crumley the Galliagh Development Trust Project manager that the DSD who commissioned the report wouldn't sign off on it. Here's a few snippets below. I would ask that if you know anyone from Galliagh tell them what it says.
So from the bit below you can see according to Quinn Consultancy there is only 1 shop in Galliagh, now is that the Co-op, Bracken Stores, Glencaw Stores, The Bloomfield Shop, The Altcar Shop, The Moss Park Shop,The Fern Park Shop, The Galliagh Park Shop? I can't work out which one they are talking about? This rubbish was perpetuated by the Galliagh Development Trust until residents put a stop to it!
In the 2 sections below you see once again we have only 1 shop for a population of 10-11 thousand people, we're so deprived! And currently according to Quinn, residents of Galliagh have to take a taxi into the city centre or to Northside shopping centre. This according to Quinn is highly inappropriate considering that a lot of residents are unemployed or in poorly paid jobs. (remember that bit now!) - Oh and then the clanger Northside shopping complex, which I can see from my front door would cater for a totally separate area from Galliagh. Who actually wrote this? Did they speak to anyone from Galliagh?
And to think they pay consultants thousands to write crap like this!
Ah the pub, the money spinner. It is rumoured that the licence for the Stables Bar that has long since gone was on ice for this. So the nearest pub is the 'Dalicroix', well most people know it as the Delacroix but lets not split hairs. So the 'Del', as its known is actually farther away than the Shantallow House, and lets not forget the Collon Bar either. Now here's the clincher the local development group believes a significant amount of money is being spent outside of Galliagh on taxis etc. which could be put into the local community if it had its own licenced premises. It gets better or worse, depending on what way you look at it!
Again we have the one shop, and A mobile chip shop which operates at the edge of a footpath. A chip shop, I can think of 4 in spitting distance of each other, and they've all been there for years! There's a need for chemists, hair dressers, bookies, newsagents. I can think of two chemists within a 5 minute walk from each other, at Northside & the Co-op. There's a bookies at Devlins in Shantallow a few mins walk away. There's hair dressers in Northside and beside Superfare, a few mins away, there's a couple of barbers in and around Galliagh. And all of the shops sell newspapers.
Now back to the bar, and remember there's high unemployment and people on low wages. The bar that they claim is nearest to Galliagh, is actually the furthest away from the area. There's a significant amount of money spent on taxis to take people to and from public houses, and lets not forget all the money us Galliagh people spend on the demon drink! So according to the group behind this £300,000 was spent on taxi fares alone to take people to the pub- they might have been going to work, or to visit their sick granny but no, if they got a taxi they went to the pub! And then there was OVER 4.5 million pounds spent in the pubs by galliagh people alone. Now REMEMBER WE'RE ALL ON THE DOLE OR IN LOW PAYING JOBS! So that works out at 4.8 MILLION pounds per year on getting to the pub and drinking.
Then in an attempt to paint a positive image of Galliagh they say that the reality is that this money will be spent on alcohol whether it is in a building of this nature, in the homes, outside on a bench or elsewhere in the city. So you know what them Galliagh people are all hardened drinkers they're gonna drink no matter what so lets build a bar in the middle of the community.
That's really going to help cut down on the anti social behaviour!
Have you ever read as much rubbish. Theres a community, they're deprived. on low income or benefits, they spend the guts of 5 million quid a year on booze so lets build a bar and capitalize on this. Community Development, I don't think so, Exploitation is a more apt term.
