Streets in East, North and South Belfast will be surveyed despite warninngs from council officers
Dromore Street, East Belfast, by Google Maps
Belfast City Council has decided to survey three streets for Irish dual language signage despite officials flagging them as “adverse impact” streets.
Elected representatives from a committee at City Hall this week voted to have surveys after applications for English and Irish dual language street signs were received from three streets where council officers said “potential for adverse impact existed”.
The three streets are Fernwood Street, in Ballynafeigh, South Belfast, Cliftonpark Avenue, between Crumlin Road and Cliftonville Road in North Belfast, and Dromore Street, off Cregagh Road in East Belfast.
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The 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.”
Initial assessments were carried out for these three streets and potential adverse impacts were identified.
The council report on the applications states: “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.”
It added: “The council retains ‘residual discretion’ in relation to these applications. In effect this gives elected members the option not to proceed to survey and/ or halt the erection of a dual language street sign in a street where, in the view of elected members this action would be considered inappropriate.”
At the June meeting of the People and Communities Committee, held this week, the decision was taken to a vote after a divided chamber was indicated. On a Sinn Féin proposal that surveys should be conducted on the three streets, 13 voted in favour from Sinn Féin, Alliance and the SDLP, while five voted against the proposal, from the DUP.
Sinn Féin Councillor Micheal Donnelly said at the meeting: “We have nothing to fear from carrying the survey out. Let’s see what the feedback is.”
Also this week, an attempt by nationalist councillors to have Irish street signs along the full length of a North Belfast road split between nationalists and unionists was described as “sectarian” by a DUP councillor.
DUP Councillor Fred Cobain made the comments in relation to an attempt by Sinn Féin and the SDLP to have Irish and English dual language signs down the full length of Donegall Park Avenue in North Belfast.
On a tight vote pushed through by the DUP and Alliance, the committee decided to place Irish and English dual language street signs only at certain “suitable” parts, that is, at nationalist sections of the street.
In 2022 councillors agreed a new policy on dual language street signs would finally be implemented – 18 months after the policy was originally given the go-ahead in the chamber. Sinn Féin, Alliance, the SDLP, the Green Party, and the People Before Profit Party all supported the new street sign policy, while the three unionist parties, the DUP, UUP and PUP, were against it.
The current policy means at least one resident of any Belfast street, or a councillor, is all that is required to trigger a consultation on a second nameplate.
If 15 per cent or more of all occupants surveyed in a street want to have a dual language sign in the language requested, this will be sufficient to erect the sign. Non-responses will no longer be counted as “against” votes, and there will be an equality assessment for each application.
Before that, the policy required 33.3 percent of the eligible electorate in any Belfast street to sign a petition to begin the process, and 66.6 percent to agree to the new dual language sign on the street.
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