Angry residents force policing board meeting to be cancelled

POLICING representatives called off a meeting in a republican area of the North yesterday following fierce resistance from residents.

Members of the board, which holds commanders in Newry to account, were due to gather in Forkhill, south Armagh, last night.

But the authority postponed the event amid rising concerns about the level of opposition and possible confrontations.

Campaigners in Forkhill claimed 98% of villagers petitioned did not want the District Policing Partnership in their area. With republicans still boycotting new police arrangements, unionists on the authority accused Sinn Féin of orchestrating the plot.

Henry Reilly, an Ulster Unionist on the partnership, said: “There are people in the area who don’t want the DPP there for their own political reason.

“There are people who do see themselves as the policemen and who don’t want to give up that responsibility,” he said.

“They enjoy this ‘bandit country’ tag that south Armagh has had; they don’t want to see normalisation.”

Mr Reilly said the DPP would carry a survey before deciding whether to rearrange the meeting.

The setback follows ongoing dissident republican attacks on some members of the 26 DPPs across the North.

Professor Desmond Rea, chairman of the central board in Belfast, said he had been kept informed of developments.

“Newry and Mourne DPP has the full support of the Policing Board in the action it has taken,” he said.

Forkhill residents who resent heavy police and military presence in the area denied the move was political.

Sinn Féin’s Newry and Armagh assemblyman, Conor Murphy, insisted republicans, nationalists and non-aligned others all signed the petition.

“The people on the DPP are putting their head in the sand. They are not being aware of the fact that people don’t have confidence in the DPPs, they don’t have confidence in the new policing arrangements,” said Mr Murphy.

“They want a normal and proper police service.”