Good neighbours

IT MAY ONLY BE 20 HOUSES but the impact of a new housing scheme called Carran Crescent is likely to be felt across Northern Ireland.

Opened yesterday by Northern Ireland secretary Peter Hain, the development in Enniskillen, Co Fermanagh is the province’s first mixed housing scheme, where Catholic and Protestant families have signed a charter of good neighbourliness to live side by side. It comes eight years after the Good Friday agreement, under which Britain promised to provide homes for people who wanted to live alongside each other free from fear of intimidation.

The project is a partnership between Ulidia Housing Association and the Housing Executive and is the first to be completed according to the principles of the Shared Future policy adopted by the government in 2005. About 95% of public housing in the province is segregated.

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