Belfast street to get Irish signs at the say of one single person: Sole voter to decide for entire road under council dual-language rules
A Belfast city centre street is to get Irish language signs on the say-so of a single voter.
Belfast Council has recorded that 50% of Russell Street, just a short distance from city hall, wants to have Irish language signs built.
But the council surveyed just two residents to ask whether they’d be in favour of dual language street signs – and only one of them replied.
That single vote was in favour of Irish signs, spurring councillors to now rubber-stamp the dual language move.
The council only issued a pair of surveys, a spokeswoman told the News Letter, as just two of Russell Street’s residents are on the electoral register. That’s even though several addresses in a development run by a social housing firm have their front doors on the street, in addition to ordinary homes.
According to council rules, it takes only a single person asking for Irish language signs on their road to trigger the survey process, after which only residents on the electoral register will be polled. If at least 15% of those surveyed are in favour, dual-language signs will be built along the length of the road.
In the case of Russell Street, those rules resulted in a single reply making up 50% of the poll, and as a result that one voter gets to make the decision for every household on the street.
The leader of the DUP group on the local authority, councillor Sarah Bunting, is a regular critic of the current Irish signs system. She pointed out that it’s possible the same individual both triggered the survey process and responded to the resulting poll, and is now getting their way with the entire road.
“The fact that one person in the street makes up 50% of the people who would be surveyed, and that same person would be the only one needed to trigger the process of consultation for a sign in a second language, is completely absurd,” she said.
"We have consistently pointed out the many issues within this policy, but it seems other parties are quite happy to keep pushing on with it because it suits their political agenda.”
The case came before a council committee meeting last night (8th), during which dual language signs on Russell Street were approved without debate.
Three nearby streets are also due to get Irish signage, but in every case far more than just two people were surveyed – for example, 65 were polled on Sussex Place, of whom almost a quarter wanted dual language signs.
Last night’s meeting also saw councillors overwhelmingly reject a DUP attempt to stop Irish sign surveys being carried out on Mount Merrion Avenue in a heavily unionist part of Belfast.
The road runs past the home of Ulster Rugby, Kingspan Stadium, and marks one edge of the loyalist Cregagh Estate. Council officials had warned that polling the area could spark trouble, but the DUP’s bid to halt it was defeated by 15 votes to five – meaning the surveys will now happen.
Irish language polls will also be issued to several nearby streets around around Cregagh Road and Castlereagh Road, including Loopland Drive, Lismain Street, Onslow Gardens and Isoline Street.