Northern Ireland council to push ahead with ‘constitutional change’ workshops as Unionist representatives boycott good relations working group

Minutes from the council’s good relations working group meeting show councillors were provided with an update on the delivery of workshops following the local authority’s support for a controversial motion in May last year.

The motion, brought forward by Sinn Fein councillor John McNamee, calls for council to consult with its ratepayers on the issue and implications for the council area of constitutional change.

The motion was passed with the 25 members of Aontu, SDLP, Sinn Fein and the independent councillors voting in favour of it while the 15 members of the DUP and UUP voted against the proposal.

At the meeting of the good relations working group in March, which no unionists councillors attended, those present were told that a specification for the workshops had been developed and sent out for quotations with the expectation being that five online events and a close event will take place in June.

The specification includes a member reference group which would be used to facilitate recommendations and feedback from members and a registration mechanism will be put in place to gauge the level of participation from the district’s residents.

Members of the working group agreed that once a delivery agent was appointed members would be contacted in relation to the establishment of the member reference group specific to this piece of work. Following this, a meeting will be convened in line with the quotation specification and discussed at the meeting.

Meanwhile, the council’s good relations working group has been labelled as the “nationalist relations working group” by one DUP councillor.

Council’s equality scheme 2021-26 requires that meetings of the corporate good relations working group are held with the purpose of promoting good relations in areas such as flags, emblems, language, bonfires, street naming and internal and external aspects of good relations.

However, in December last year, the committee’s chair, UUP councillor Derek McKinney, explained he would not be attending meetings of this working group as he believes “there are no good relations on the council”.

Minutes of the meeting held on Wednesday, March 9, discussed at a meeting of council’s policy and resources committee last Thursday, show that only Sinn Fein councillors John McNamee, Sean McPeake, Cora Corry, Niamh Doris and Ian Milne were in attendance along with SDLP councillor, Martin Kearney.

Previously, DUP councillors Kim Ashton, Paul McLean and Kyle Black had sent apologies for not attending the meeting. However, the minutes note that no apologies were received for absences from this meeting.

Commenting on the minutes, Ms Ashton noted the make-up of the good relations working group is “really now the nationalist relations working group as there is no unionist attending that”.

“Our parties have concerns about the money that is being spent through this channel looking at a united Ireland,” she said.