Democracy at Work

Today P7, along with the P7 pupils of Seaview, visited the council chambers of the Mid & East Antrim Council in Ballymena courtesy of a trip organised by Carnlough Community Association.

Once there and after some refreshments, it was straight into the chambers where we watched a video which gave us an overview of the work carried out by the Mid & East Antrim Council. After that, we met Councillors Wales, Morrow, Mulvenna & Wilson who had kindly agreed to give of their time and came along, told us about how the council worked and answered our queries and questions using the very sophisticated intercom system which allowed each speaker to be heard by everybody else in the chambers.  Anybody who was speaking also appeared on the large screens at the front of the room.

After each of the councillors had spoken, explaining why they had become involved in local government, it was time for a 'Q & A' session which went really well with lots of probing, sophisticated questions being asked.  In fact, it went so well that it had to be cut short because we still had to visit the museum which very few of us knew existed in The Braid Centre!  So having thanked our hosts, the councillors, we rushed off for a quick tour of one part of the museum which alas ended too soon but whetted our appetites for a return visit some time in the near future.  

And finally it was time for a delicious lunch before boarding the bus and heading  back to school. 

Once again, thank you to: Mid & East Antrim Council for hosting this event; the four councillors who talked about their experiences working in local government and finally to Carnlough Community Association who organised the whole thing - we all agreed that it was a great trip and a wonderful experience.