Bangor Orange Lodge to meet with council after request for Orange Victims Day event at Ward Park was turned down

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Wesley Irvine, Independent Councillor and Orange Lodge member said the Bangor District Lodge was planning a meeting with Ards North Down Council Chief Executive Susie McCullough in the coming weeks.

He was speaking after a council officer said a use of land request for Ward Park by Bangor Orange District Lodge should have been done at least 12 weeks in advance.

Councillors and officers at a recent meeting responded to the controversy.

Ards and North Down Borough Council said it had a legal obligation “to promote good relations,” including screening third party land requests to use the council’s land. The screening process meant the memorial could not be held on September 8.

The council also said the use of a flagpole was turned down in line with the council’s current flag policy, under which it will only fly the Union Flag on 15 designated days per calendar year at its war memorials.

North Down MP Alex Easton had said the council’s decision to hold an equality impact assessment was “a bureaucratic obstacle that disregards the significance of this event” and said the decision caused “deep hurt and disappointment to families of victims, veterans and the wider community.”

At the council’s Corporate Services Committee meeting, Wesley Irvine said many people across the borough “didn’t understand, or were dismayed” to learn that the Bangor Orange District Lodge weren’t able to have a short act of remembrance at Ward Park.

He said: “It was deemed necessary (by the council) that an EQIA (equality impact assessment) would be required to be carried out before permission could be granted for that particular act to take place.

“Unfortunately that process was not known by the organisers, they didn’t know that would have to be fulfilled. It put our council in a bit of a sticky wicket, that we were being seen to turn down a service primarily to remember members of the Orange Order who lost their lives during the period of the Troubles.

“I don’t think anyone in this chamber would put obstacles in the way of that service taking place. Services like that are important for healing, for remembrance, and it is important we have space for innocent victims to be remembered.”

The Orange institution lost 343 members to violence during the period known as the Troubles. The September date chosen by the Bangor Lodge for the memorial refers to the killing of five Orange lodge members at a rural Orange hall meeting in Tullyvallen on September 1, 1975. The date of September 1 is remembered as Orange Victims Day.

DUP Councillor James Cochrane said: “I would like to commend the District Lodge for the very dignified way they held their parade and wreath laying, as individuals, on Sunday. I think it was a credit to the institution.

“I am committed to working alongside fellow councillors, council officers and members of the institution to ensure that next year we will be able to have the service.”

A council officer told the chamber: “The request that was received was in relation to holding an event for what was described as an Orange Victims Day. So as part of that we screened under Section 10.2 of the Lands Policy, where it states that permission is granted to use land or property without prejudice to any planning, building control, environmental or other legislative requirement.

“Other legislative requirements include Section 75, which requires the council to have due regard to promote equality and good relations. So as part of the consultation internally for that, we send that out to the Corporate leadership team and to officers who would generally comment on any Lands requests. That includes the Equality Officer.

“As part of that, the Equality Officer screened the proposal for an equality impact assessment, which takes 12 weeks.

He added: “It would be hard for us to identify events miles in advance, as to which ones would be screened in or screened out. That’s why I think engagement with organisations like the Bangor District Lodge (should be) well in advance, at least 12 weeks, and if not more.

“But obviously we have a lot of time between the one next year. That will enable us to conduct the necessary assessments.”