Andy Allen, the Ulster Unionist Party's North Belfast Spokesperson, has condemned those behind an attempt to create a sectarian ghetto at the site of a new housing development in Newtownabbey.

Mr Allen said: 

“I am absolutely disgusted at the latest attempt to whip up community tensions in North Belfast, centred on the former Felden Training Centre site just off the Mill Road.

“On Sunday night graffiti was sprayed on commercial premises in the area, indicating that any protestants who attempted to move into the 97 units being built there by Clanmil Housing, would be ‘bombed out, burnt out and shot.’ There was also a threat against a named employee of Clanmil Housing.     

“Right at the outset of this project many people had concerns that the Felden site was not suitable for developing shared housing given its proximity to hard-line republican areas such as Bawnmore and Longlands. This graffiti incident is the latest in a number of incidents which are clearly designed to intimidate Protestants who may be thinking of applying for housing in the new development.

“It is a sad fact that North Belfast endured a long history of ethnic cleansing of Protestants from areas such as the Cliftonville Road, Antrim Road, and Torrens Estate. This weekend saw a sectarian attack on property on Skegoneil Avenue. Clearly in spite of fine words of a shared future, and the noble intention of creating an area of shared housing, there are elements within the nationalist and republican community who are not prepared to share the Felden Housing site with anyone from a Protestant or unionist community background.”