‘It is a done deal’: Peter Robinson name stripped from leisure centre

At Belfast City Council tonight, the DUP proposed overturning an earlier decision made by the council’s Strategic Policy and Resources Committee over the complex’s name.

The centre – named after DUP veteran Peter Robinson – is being redeveloped.

The committee had considered whether to keep the name the same, change it, or to put the matter out to public consultation, according to outgoing SDLP councillor Tim Attwood.

It opted to change the name to simply Lisnasharragh Leisure Centre, after the council district in which it is based.

Councillor Attwood said that tonight’s DUP proposal to ignore this and keep the Robinson name suffered a “heavy” defeat.

“That’s it,” he said. “That’s a done deal.”

He said the centre had been unique among council facilities; others were named after the area in which they were based.

“Obviously there’s a need to ensure we name centres in Belfast with a consistent approach,” said councillor Attwood.

“That’s a good principle. I’m glad it’s been confirmed tonight. We don’t want to politicise leisure centres.”

DUP councillor Lee Reynolds, who proposed the motion hoping to retain the Robinson name, told the News Letter the vote was 19 in favour of his motion, 33 against, and one abstention (Jolene Bunting).

The vote was “basically everybody against the unionists” in the chamber.

He said the DUP is aims to consult a lawyer about a call-in of the decision, hoping there are still grounds for it to be re-examined.

“People can try and dress this up as good relations,” he said.

“It’s basically trying to put an anti-unionist measure in nice language.”

Other proposals this evening were to rename the centre the Castlereagh Leisure Centre, or the David Ervine Leisure Centre (after the former PUP leader).

Both fell, with the PUP saying: “[David Ervine was] a valued contributor to Northern Ireland’s peace process who both in life and in his untimely death united both traditions.

“Sadly not a single unionist, with the exception of my own party colleagues, participated in the vote. Instead they chose to abstain.”