More than 130 new jobs could be created in one of Belfast's most disadvantaged areas following the announcement of a £1.6 million investment by the International Fund for Ireland, the EU, and Making Belfast Work.
The money is going to the Upper Springvale Development Trust, which is hoping to build a new shopping and business centre on derelict land at the junction of the Whiterock and Springfield Roads.
The Upper Springfield area of west Belfast has an unemployment rate of nearly 50 per cent. Over three-quarters of 16year-olds leave school without any formal qualifications. The USDT put forward the proposals as part of a three-year development plan to 2000. Building work is expected to start early next year, and to be completed some time in 1999.
The IFI is contributing £800,000, or 50 per cent of the total funding, to the scheme. Fund chairman Mr William McCarter said that it would provide significant benefits to the local community.
"It has the potential to instill greater commercial confidence," he said, "and act as a catalyst for further investment in the area."
Belfast's Lord Mayor Alban Maginness said that the project was "a model community-based partnership" in an area which had suffered some of the city's worst deprivation and unemployment.
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