A proposal to exempt 10 streets across Belfast from ever having Irish dual language street signs has been rejected at City Hall.
An option to effectively ban street signs with Irish was voted down at a Belfast City Council Committee this week.
The council had received applications for dual language street signage in all 10 streets. Council officers gave elected representatives two options, to agree that surveys of occupiers of these streets be carried out or agree that no surveys will be carried out “on the grounds of the potential adverse impacts”.
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If councillors had chosen the second option, applications on all 10 would have been closed. Instead councillors chose for surveys to go ahead on nine.
The 10 streets are: Ormeau Road, Delhi Street, Whitewell Road, Victoria Road, Upper Dunmurry Lane, Burmah Street, Upper Newtownards Road, Sunningdale Gardens, Belmont Avenue and Donegall Road.
Regarding Donegall Road, members agreed that the application for Donegall Road was closed on the basis of a former committee agreement in October 2023 that dual language street signs would only be erected in the section of Donegall Road within the Gaeltacht Quarter boundary between the Falls Road and the Broadway roundabout. Signs have since been erected on this section of road.
When options were put forward to elected representatives at the People and Communities Committee this week, Sinn Féin proposed option B, to continue with surveys on all but Donegall Road. This proposal won with 15 votes from Sinn Féin, the SDLP and Alliance, to five against the proposal from the DUP. A proposal by the DUP to go with option A, and not survey any of the ten streets, did not go to the vote.
At the meeting, SDLP Councillor Gary McKeown said: “I think it is unacceptable we would even consider stopping people living on these streets having their say on proposed bilingual signage.
“There is no point in having a policy if we are going to override it at this committee, and dictate the outcome without even engaging with the community. It risks sending out a signal that the council thinks people in certain streets that people basically can’t be trusted to engage in the process in a mature and reflective way. There is also a risk it would set a dangerous precedent.”
The council’s dual language street sign policy states that “each application will be subject to an initial assessment for any potential adverse impacts on equality, good relations and rural needs and where any adverse impacts are identified that information will be brought to the committee”.
The council report on the ten applications states: “The initial assessments were carried out for all the streets listed and potential adverse impacts were identified. Draft equality screenings were therefore carried out, assessing the request for dual language street signs in Irish for Ormeau Road, Delhi Street, Whitewell Road, Victoria Road, Upper Dunmurry Lane, Burmah Street, Upper Newtownards Road, Sunningdale Gardens, Donegall Road and Belmont Avenue for equality and good relations issues.
“The screenings have identified that the carrying out of surveys and the erection of Irish language street signs in these areas has the potential to give rise to community tension. Conversely the screenings also identified that the process could assist in promoting cultural and linguistic diversity.”
Objections to the applications for Ormeau Road and Donegall Road were also raised by council during the elected member notification procedure.
Regarding Ormeau Road, DUP Councillor Davy Douglas, member for Lisnasharragh raised an objection. He wrote: “Ormeau Road is a mixed community and progress has been made in recent years around issues with flags in the area. I feel that the adoption of Irish street signage could be seen as divisive and have an adverse effect on good relations within the community, undoing some of the progress that has been made. I would therefore ask that the council exercise its discretion not to apply its policy at this location.”
Regarding Donegall Road, DUP Councillor Tracy Kelly, member for Botanic, raised an objection stating: “The Donegall Road splits in two, it is my understanding that the Nationalist side is already approved for Irish Language and councillors agreed that the Unionist side would be left as is due to the sensitivities.
“I would like to raise my objection to the Unionist side of the Donegall Road having Irish language street signs as this is a strong unionist area that will totally object this proposal. I believe any consultation may raise tensions and create division in a community that has recently just settled down after a spate of serious antisocial behaviour and rioting.”
The report adds: “Further to objections raised for the two streets above and following the member notification for Sunningdale Gardens the Director of Planning and Building Control received 19 emails from residents of Sunningdale Gardens and the wider local community.
“These emails expressed concerns about the application for this street and the negative impact on good relations which would be created by the installation of street signs in Irish.”
The People and Communities committee also voted this week to erect Irish dual language signs on four streets in the city - despite the numbers of residents opposing the Irish signs outnumbering those who support them in each street.
Wynchurch Avenue in East Belfast, Sunningdale Park North and Ben Madigan Park South in North Belfast, and Wellington Park Terrace in South Belfast were all previously deferred as applications for Irish dual language, after they all met the threshold for signage erection, but at the same time had greater numbers opposing the new signage than were in favour.
A fifth street, Malone Valley Park, was also deferred but was closed as an application earlier this week at a full council meeting on Monday.
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