Debate over removal of 'peace lines'

Councillors in Belfast will today debate setting up a working group to look into removing walls separating Protestant and Catholic…

Councillors in Belfast will today debate setting up a working group to look into removing walls separating Protestant and Catholic communities in the city.

The proposal will be put to the council by the nationalist SDLP at their monthly meeting tonight.

More than 40 so-called peace lines have been erected in sectarian flash point areas in Belfast, Derry and other parts of the North.

A debate has begun about whether the peace lines can be dismantled in the wake of last year's power sharing agreement at Stormont.

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Communities in Belfast have been already been sounded out about the symbolic tearing down of one wall by the organisers of a special conference in April marking the 10th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement.

The conference, planned by the US Ireland Alliance, will be attended by former US President Bill Clinton and former Stormont talks chairman Senator George Mitchell.

Ahead of tonight's debate, SDLP councillor and Assembly member Alban Maginness said there were nine peace walls when the 1994 Provisional IRA ceasefire was announced and now there were more than 40.

"These barriers have been part of the harsh reality of life in parts of our city, but we in the SDLP do not believe we should simply resign ourselves to their long-term existence," Mr Maginness.

PA