Coalisland residents urged to reclaim popular canal walk

COALISLAND residents have been urged to ‘walk the line’ in order to ‘reclaim’ the popular canal walk.

Sinn Fein’s Linda Dillon has called on the community to “join together and reclaim our beautiful canal walk” following a number of reports of anti-social behaviour and assaults in the area in recent weeks.

“We should all be able to use our community spaces whilst feeling safe,” said Dillon,

“I have spoken again with the Police and the Police and Community Safety Partnership and will be working with them to ensure all of the community can enjoy the community spaces that we have worked hard to deliver for the benefit of everyone.”

The walk is set to take place this Wednesday (February 1) at 7pm. Local residents have been urged to meet at Newel Stores to participate in the walk which will finish at Macs Lough.

This follows a number of incidents in the area in recent week in which three women were assaulted and intimidated on separate occasions by a group of young men.

The first reported incident took place at approximately 4pm on Thursday, January 19 when one of the women was out for a run.

Reports claim that during her run, the woman passed a group of roughly 10 young men when one of them started following her before punching her on the lower back.

‘Shocked’ and fearing escalation, the woman started to run faster to avoid any further conflict and managed to flee without any serious injuries.

Local MLA’s have since acknowledged two further reports of assault and intimidation which were believed to have involved a younger woman and an elderly lady.

Following these incidents, Mid Ulster PSNI have been patrolling the area and have made a statement urging anyone with concerns about people’s behaviour in the area to contact them.