'The people of Belfast deserve answers': Council tonight to probe Bobby Sands statue built without planning permission
Belfast politicians are tonight set to probe a statue of Bobby Sands built without planning permission, after city officials decided not to take any action about the situation.
Unveiled on public land in west Belfast last year, after an outcry city officials a fortnight ago announced it was “not considered expedient to take any further action in this instance” – something Sinn Fein hailed as a “common-sense approach” to the IRA hunger striker’s memorial.
Tonight the DUP are set to interrogate that decision at a special council meeting, during which they’re to call on the city authority to condemn the unauthorised erected of the statue.
They also want the council to “express serious concern” at the decision to not attempt to penalise whoever built it, and demand planning enforcement officials change their position “in line with the council’s planning responsibilities and duty to apply the law consistently and fairly across all communities”.
The party’s alderman Dean McCullough and councillor Sarah Bunting further want “full transparency”, calling for “all relevant documentation, correspondence and internal communications”, plus the legal basis and rationale behind the decision to not take any action.
The statue controversy has hit particularly hard, said Ms Bunting, due to “Sinn Fein’s wider disregard for rules which they expect to be enforced on others” in addition to nationalist stances on Orange bonfires.
“It is right that this is highlighted and discussed within the council,” she told the News Letter, having previously stated the city “deserves answers” over the situation.
She added: “People in Belfast and beyond will undoubtedly await to see whether Sinn Fein’s stance in relation to this permanent structure will be replicated when it comes to something such as bonfires, where they are amongst the first parties to demand their removal by contractors regardless of any community consultation or support.”
Attempts to get the council to condemn the statue might prove to be an uphill struggle, however; tonight’s meeting is open to the entire council, on which nationalist politicians comfortably outnumber unionists, though neither has an outright majority. That could leave the casting votes in the hands of unaligned parties, Alliance and the Greens.
The statue of Sands was erected on Housing Executive land in the Twinbrook area, the body later stating the monument was built without its knowledge or permission.