Irish sign surveys risk sparking 'community tension', officials warn - but are likely to happen anyway
Polling three parts of Belfast on whether they want Irish street signs could spark ‘community tension’, the city’s council officials have warned.
But the surveys are likely to issued anyway, including in the heavily unionist lower Oldpark and Cregagh Road areas, as nationalists on the council have disregarded previous similar warnings to plough ahead with the polls.
The issue is due to be discussed and voted on at a committee meeting tonight.
According to reports seen by the News Letter, officials have flagged Fernwood Street, Cliftonpark Avenue and Dromore Street as potentially risky.
Fernwood Street is a residential area off Ormeau Road in the south of the city; Cliftonpark Avenue in lower Oldpark runs between Crumlin Road and Cliftonville Road in the north of the capital, and Dromore Street runs off Cregagh Road in east Belfast.
Officials say that issuing surveys to residents in all three areas “has the potential to give rise to community tension, as could the erection of the street signs” and so could damage the council’s attempts to build good relations across the city.
They add, however, that the surveys “could alternatively assist in promoting cultural and linguistic diversity”.
When such warnings have been issued in the past, nationalists have led a push to issue the surveys anyway – usually winning.
It only takes a single application for dual language signs to kick off the survey process. Residents can file applications for their streets, though councillors can submit for any streets in their districts.
It only takes 15% of a street to back the signs to see them built – and Belfast Council hasn’t built any signs in a language other than Irish since that threshold was introduced more than three years ago.
Recently Sinn Fein launched attempts to push the policy even further, demanding time limits that would stop failed bids for Irish signs being tested again for several years be scrapped.
The party has also led nationalists in voting through Irish signs on streets that have failed to meet the 15% threshold, sometimes in areas where fewer than one in 10 people said they wanted them built.
And it now argues only residents who reply to surveys should be counted, maintaining that if a small handful answer but all back Irish signs that should be regarded as “100% support”.