Parties urged to take police board places

The Women's Coalition has called on nationalist parties to take their places on the North's new Policing Board to build confidence…

The Women's Coalition has called on nationalist parties to take their places on the North's new Policing Board to build confidence in the peace process.

The party's Assembly members, Ms Jane Morrice and Prof Monica McWilliams, said nationalist support for the Policing Board would be a "more powerful affirmation of moving to exclusively democratic means than decommissioning will ever be".

With the SDLP and Sinn Fein withholding support for the policing arrangements, Prof McWilliams said parties which nominated to the board would be making clear the service was the "only legitimate agent of law enforcement, and they will support the police in that role".