Ceasefire gives Ulster a chance to improve city

An Institute of Urban Affairs for Belfast is to open as part of a Government plan to improve the city in the aftermath of the paramilitary ceasefires.

Academics from the University of Ulster, where the institute will be based, will work with the community while people involved in community action groups will be able to take time off to study at the institute.

Day-to-day management will fall to a partnership board comprising the university, statutory and community agencies and the private sector.

Around Pounds 15 million - more than a quarter of the budget for the entire programme - will be targeted directly at education.

A strategy document published this week said: "The peace process provides a timely opportunity for reconstruction. Belfast has many strengths which have sustained its communities through 25 years of sectarian conflict.

"Those same strengths can be energised to build a new city, where there is equity, acceptance of cultural diversity and partnership, to create a quality of life in which children and young people can grow to realise their full potential."