Northern Ireland's town hall leaders have challenged the Stormont Executive to ensure they get the £30m package needed for local government modernisation. In a lively debate with the province's environment minister, Arlene Foster, at a Northern Ireland Local Government Association (NILGA) meeting last week, councillors called for adequate funding to carry out their new functions. NILGA vice-president, Cllr Helen Quigley, said: ‘While NILGA welcomes the transfer of functions to local government, we need to see adequate resources being provided to ensure councils can perform their new functions. And NILGA vice-president, Cllr Peter Weir, added that the funding was ‘essential' to ensure ‘citizen-centred services' under the new, 11-council model. The number of local authorities is to drop from 26 to 11 by 2011, but these will have greater responsibilities.
