Irish language signs in East Belfast: Council starts process despite warnings of unrest
Belfast Council has voted to begin the process of erecting dual language signs on major parts of East Belfast, despite their own staff warning it could spark trouble.
On Tuesday night (4th) a council committee voted to start a mechanism that could see Irish language signs plastered along the length of Upper Newtownards Road, a four-mile main route through heavily Unionist areas in the east of the city from Connswater to Ballyhackamore, and out past Stormont to the Ulster Hospital.
The council is now going to carry out surveys asking people in the area what they want to happen; under current policies, if just 15% of residents want the signs, then they’ll be built. That’s even if everyone else surveyed is dead against them.
The moves passed by 10 votes at Tuesday night’s committee, and came despite council staff warning that the act of issuing Irish language surveys in that part of the city could by itself cause unrest – or “the potential to give rise to community tension”, to use the official jargon.
It resulted in the council’s DUP leader saying the situation “highlights the madness” of those policies, as only a single person requesting dual language signs is enough to kickstart the process.
Irish sign surveys will also be issued in East Belfast streets Belmont Avenue in the Strandtown area and Victoria Road in Sydenham.
And they’re to go out on major South Belfast route Ormeau Road, as well as a couple of residential streets close to that mixed area.
Sunningdale Gardens in North Belfast is also to receive surveys, even though many people in the area have already emailed the council objecting to the move and stating they’re worried it will hurt community relations.
Several Nationalist roads will be surveyed as well.
During Tuesday night’s meeting, a senior council official warned that “potential adverse impacts” have been identified in all of the East and South Belfast streets.
“The carrying out of a survey for each of these areas has the potential to give rise to community tension, as could the erection of street signs,” director of planning and building control Kate Bentley told the committee.
“It’s also acknowledged, however, that the process could alternatively assist in promoting cultural and linguistic diversity.”
Arguing against kickstarting the surveys, DUP group leader councillor Sarah Bunting pointed to the unrest warnings while adding: “It highlights the madness in the policy, that one person in a street the likes of the Upper Newtownards Road can apply for these signs.”
SDLP councillor Gary McKeown disagreed, stating that it’s “unacceptable we would even consider stopping people living in these streets having their say” on dual language signs.
"It sends out a signal that this council thinks people on certain streets can’t be trusted to engage with this process,” he said.
In total, 15 members of the committee, comprising Sinn Fein, the SDLP, Alliance and the Greens, were in favour of issuing the Irish sign surveys. Only five councillors, all DUP, voted against.
Speaking after the meeting, the DUP said they hope to have council policy rewritten to raise the 15% threshold for building dual language signs later this year.