Veteran Down District Councillors have voiced their support for Green Party local council election candidate Cadogan Enright and have made a cross-community appeal for the voters to support him on the 5th May. Raymond Blaney and Bill Corry who both served on Down Council have called on voters in Downpatrick and Lecale to reject the “entrepreneurs of sectarianism and nationalism’”who tried to wreck the St Patrick’s Parade. They have called on the electorate to vote Number 1 for their Green Party colleague Cadogan Enright at the upcoming elections on 5th May. The veteran local politicians were signing the nomination papers for Councillor Enright in the wake of what they described as the “disgraceful sullying” of Downpatrick’s name during last week around the St Patrick Festival. Bill Corry said, “There was a cross-party agreement on emblems and flags achieved last January in the inter-party committee chaired by the Green Party’s Councillor Cadogan Enright. The SDLP, Sinn Fein and the DUP have all managed to undo different aspects of this agreement”. [caption id="attachment_21889" align="alignleft" width="400" caption="Filling in the nomination papers. Former Down District Green Party Councillors Bill Corry and Raymond Blaney who have come out in support of Cllr Cadogan Enright, centre, running in the local council elections on May 5th."][/caption] Raymond Blaney added, “The A&E department at the Hospital is under threat. Why did not local politicians carry a banner at the front of the parade protesting the falsehood that the local Health Trust is unable to recruit staff? “The truth is that the DUP, SDLP and SF are in coalition with each other and did not use their power to dissent from the Stormont Budget recently to force the Minister to protect our local hospital. Instead they had a pre-election spat about flags. “Councillor Cadogan Enright has done a great job in focusing on local issues that really matter in our area and I call on voters to recognise this and give him a number one vote and preserve the independent voice on Council pioneered by Bill Corry and myself”. Councillor Enright thanked his retired party colleagues and said, “When voters elected Raymond Blaney and Bill Corry to Council they were sending a signal to the major parties. They demanded that we focus on the local needs of the community for good health care, a clean environment for our children and excellence in front-line council services. For the last few years I have striven to follow their lead and have published details of my work for the local community each week at www.downgreens.com and distributed an annual newsletter reporting to every house. ” “I am honored to be nominated by such respected local men, and promise to continue in their tradition if elected as one of the seven councillors in Lecale. I will stay free of the regular irrelevant spats between the SDLP and SF or the DUP and UUP that have no relevance to the local population and continue to work with all parties and none for the benefit of the local community as I have been doing these last few years,” said Councillorl Enright.]]>