why am i standing for election to Belfast City Council? Northern Ireland councils don’t have the powers of most of their European counterparts.

Full statement

they don’t even have the powers of their Irish, English, Welsh, or Scottish counterparts. but they do have power. from licensing to street cleaning to community funding, the council can make a difference. but it has often let us down. recent upticks of dereliction and a lack of safety in the city are the result of both Tory economics, DUP indifference, and a lack of political will in the Council. efforts to bring in foreign investment by signing away the historic city to private developers have led to nothing but corporate vandalism. the establishment parties are tied to an economic model of attracting offshore money, and it has failed. we need community wealth-building and municipal solidarity to save our city, not vulture funds.

in addition, we live amidst a wave of increasingly abusive transphobia, which we must defeat. if elected, i would be the first out trans local rep in Ireland; a milestone which i hope could stand as a refutation of bigotry and a sign to queer kids that things might, with work and solidarity, get better. to be clear: queer kids deserve a better world than they’ve got. i want to do my bit to help deliver it.

my priorities include: –Accessibility: my day job in arts access, and my lived experience as a disabled person, means the lack of accessibility in Belfast is clear to me. we need safe routes and roads for walkers and wheelers, a joined-up approach to transport, political will to enforce accessibility policies, and real consideration for how neurodivergent people interact with the city and its institutions.

–Arts: the arts in Belfast are getting by on a shoestring. my artist friends are fighting to bring life to the city while their studios crumble and burn, and nightlife is throttled by a lack of public transport. the Council must maintain and expand arts funding and facilitation, and recognise that building a city which welcomes artists means fighting for affordable communities that gives artists time, space, and money for their work.

–Energy: the 2020s have been a decade of energy crisis, and this is not set to improve on its own. the only viable solution is to give communities the power to make power. the Council must support local groups and neighbourhoods in establishing clean local energy which they own. community-owned energy means energy democracy and freedom from the price-gouging of the energy companies. empowering communities to harness renewable energy in a fair and affordable way is a key Green policy and one i am proud to champion.

–Liberation: i know that i’m signing myself up for a series of vile transphobic attacks by being a trans woman in the public eye. but i’m doing it because i cannot sit by, in relative privilege, and allow transphobes to dictate their falsehoods unchecked. i am aiming to be not only a queer woman on Belfast City Council (all openly queer councillors in 2019-23 were men) but the first out trans local rep in Irish history. i want to make this a message that despite their vitriolic hatred, the bigots will not win. Belfast must be a safer place for queer people, in the council chambers and more importantly outside of them. for this, i am taking a stand.