Here is your chamber round-up of the month from the Local Democracy Reporting Service
Stock image of Belfast City Hall(Image: Belfast Live)
This month a long-standing antisocial behaviour issue in the city was addressed, as parties gave a rare display of unity in speaking out against the scrambler problem. Meanwhile a painful compromise was reached on another long–standing political hot potato, Sunday trading hours in the city.
The Irish language continues to inspire, and divide, groups and individuals in the city of Belfast, and this is reflected nowhere more than at City Hall. In May a controversial decision was made on Irish and English dual language street signs, while it was revealed Belfast will have its first female Gaeilgeoir as Lord Mayor, in perfect time for the city’s first Fleadh Cheoil na Héireann this summer.
Here is your latest round up of Belfast Council matters for the month of May:
Growing scrambler and e-scooter problem across the city brings united front at City Hall
At the monthly full meeting of Belfast City Council on May 5, the chamber united around a DUP motion, calling for a host of measures to deal with the growing threat from the antisocial use of scramblers and e-scooters in the city. It included a “friendly” amendment by the Deputy Mayor, Paul Doherty.
On the same evening at Stewartstown Road, West Belfast, police were attacked at a “vehicle event” including youths driving dangerously on scrambler bikes. A large number of people with covered faces emerged from a crowd and threw projectiles at police.
A fire was started and Fire and Rescue Service workers were attacked when they tried to respond, leading to their withdrawal from the area. Five police vehicles were damaged and two officers were injured.
Narrow vote at City Hall pushes through Irish signage for seven streets that did not meet 15 percent threshold
On May 12, elected representatives at the council’s People and Communities Committee voted narrowly to use discretionary powers to erect Irish and English dual language street signs on seven Belfast streets that after surveying did not meet the 15 percent policy threshold for receiving the signs.
The streets are University Street, Colinvale, Friendly Way, McAuley Street, Mill Pond Glen, Shaftesbury Avenue and Stewart Street. One street that passed saw an approval level of as low as 7.79 percent. All the surveys, apart from University Street, were in what could be considered “nationalist” streets.
The decision will have to be ratified by the full council on June 1, where another vote is expected. The outcome will very much depend on the turnout of elected representatives, and with a full house, the Green Party could be kingmakers in favour of the Sinn Féin proposal.
People power wins out over opposition to demolition in Cherry Valley
An application for the demolition of a house to facilitate the expansion of a Spar garage in the exclusive Cherry Valley area of East Belfast has been refused after a local campaign against it.
Against the recommendation of council officials, elected representatives at Belfast City Council narrowly voted to refuse a planning application around the garage at 46-50 Gilnahirk Road.
The plan, by Maxol Oil Ltd, was to demolish an existing dwelling, 50 Gilnahirk Road, to facilitate a proposed extension and alterations to the existing petrol filling station.
After years of hot debate, Sunday trading hours in Belfast are extended, but only for two days in a trial
A plan, pushed by the Alliance Party, to extend Sunday Trading hours in Belfast by turning the city into an economic “holiday resort” for 13 Sundays between June and September this year was voted down at a Belfast City Council committee meeting on May 22.
The majority of councillors aired concerns about workers rights and the council’s consultation, and opposed implementation of the full plan. The DUP voted against any extension of Sunday trading hours.
Instead the 20 member Strategic Policy and Resources Committee went with a Sinn Féin proposal to give Belfast holiday resort designation until the end of September, but only using two Sundays for extended trading, during the Fleadh Cheoil na Héireann.
Belfast to get first female Gaeilgeoir as Lord Mayor
Belfast will have an Ard-Mhéara Gaeilgeoir, or fluent Irish-speaking Lord Mayor, for the Fleadh Cheoil in the city this summer.
Belfast’s new incoming Lord Mayor, to be inducted at the full council meeting on June, is Sinn Féin Councillor Róis-Máire Donnelly, a 30-year-old operations manager in the community sector.
A native of Ballymurphy in West Belfast, Róis-Máire has been a councillor for three and a half years, representing the Black Mountain District Electoral Area. In her coming term she says she wants to focus on young people, the cost of living crisis, the Irish language, and the epidemic of violence against women and girls.
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