Critics accuse the two largest parties of creating a culture of “pure gridlock” in the council
A CGI of the planned Roselawn crematorium(Image: BCC)
Sinn Féin and the DUP have been criticised for attempting to block decisions for a new crematorium at Roselawn cemetery and new Belfast city centre byelaws clamping down on busker noise and the display of graphic imagery.
It emerged during the full monthly meeting of Belfast City Council on Monday (March 2) that Sinn Féin had “called-in” a majority decision made at a committee meeting for a new two-chapel crematorium at the current site at Roselawn in East Belfast. The DUP, using the same process, called in a decision to progress draft byelaws addressing graphic imagery and noise levels in Belfast City Centre.
According to local government law, only 15 percent of a council is required to call-in a decision, setting off independent legal examination, a potential equality impact assessment, then a potential redetermination of the decision.
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If the call-in is seen as competent, it will go back to the full council, where the original proposal might then have to pass anything up to an 80 percent threshold of the vote to be successful.
The 15 percent may ask for a decision to be called-in on two grounds. Firstly, that the decision was not arrived at after a proper consideration of the relevant facts and issues, that is, on procedural grounds, and/or secondly that the decision would disproportionately affect adversely any section of the inhabitants of the district, that is, on community impact grounds.
It is feared that the normal call-in procedure in these two latest cases will be dragged out even further as the council’s procedure itself is facing high-court legal challenges questioning the 15 percent trigger. TUV member Ann McClure is seeking to judicially review the council over the call-in scheme after unionist parties failed to stop the Palestinian flag being flown at City Hall using the mechanism last year.
At the council’s Strategic Policy and Resources Committee meeting at City Hall on Friday (February 20), elected members passed on a majority vote proposed draft byelaws to address graphic imagery and noise levels in Belfast City Centre.
The byelaws would include new provisions for penalties, including fines up to £500, against those individuals making noise over 70 decibels in the city centre, and those displaying graphic imagery to members of the public. While the noise proposals have appeared in previous drafts of the document, the imagery aspect is new, and has been proposed mainly in reaction to the displaying of imagery by anti-abortion campaigners.
This aspect would prohibit the public display in the city centre of large poster size imagery relating to miscarriage and abortion without warning. Promotional materials which contain graphic imagery, as defined in the new byelaws, would still be permitted, but must be no more than A4 size, and contained within an envelope bearing an appropriate warning.
The newly proposed draft byelaws document faces opposition from the DUP, but passed at the Strategic Policy and Resources Committee with 14 in favour from Sinn Féin, Alliance, the SDLP and the Greens, to four against from the DUP. It was expected to be ratified at the full council meeting this week, before the DUP called it in.
The proposal and decision for a new two-chapel crematorium at the current site at Roselawn was taken behind closed doors in a secret meeting away from the public and press. Sinn Féin reportedly did not support the decision. They have been accused by critics of opposing it on “sectarian” grounds, with some believing there are implications that people in west Belfast do not want to travel to east Belfast to cremate their loved ones.
Belfast City Council first revealed an £18 million plan for a new crematorium five years ago, while funeral directors and families have expressed frustration at the long delay in decision making at City Hall. It was due to open in 2024, and accommodate 4,500 ceremonies a year. Meanwhile long lists of families using the facility are limited to rushed ceremonies packed into 20 minute slots.
Green Councillor Anthony Flynn, who made the proposal for a new two chapel crematorium at the current site at a Belfast Council working group, said: “It is typical of one of the bigger parties, in this case Sinn Féin with the crematorium, to call in something they don’t like.
“I think it is just a delaying tactic, just to waste more time. Already we have seen a huge amount of time spent on the planning for this, the planning approval has been sitting for over two years, and we are at the stage where we need to make a decision.”
The Alliance Party proposed the Belfast City Centre byelaws motion that passed at committee stage. Alliance Councillor and Party Group Leader Michael Long said: “The frustration for us is that two democratically taken decisions have been delayed by the call-in process, one by the DUP, one by Sinn Féin. The long term outcome, if this is repeated, is that we end up with pure gridlock in the council, and it will mean things are not delivered for local residents.”
He added: “Regarding Roselawn, there was particularly large support from across the community and different parties for this, and anyone who has visited Roselawn will know that the current level of provision isn’t adequate.”
He said: “Regarding the city centre byelaws, there were only five out of 20 members who opposed that at committee, so even under any weighted majority position in terms of getting cross-community support, this would go through easily. And yet it has been called in because the DUP don’t like the decision.
“Once it goes through this process, it has to go to a DUP minister. It doesn’t send a very encouraging message that he [Minister Gordon Lyons] will be willing to abide by the democratic will of the council either.”
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