Removing Prince Andrew's name from two Belfast streets four times harder than adding Irish signs, after council relaxed dual language policy while keeping English changes strictly limited

Two streets in the south of the capital are named in honour of the disgraced royal, Prince Andrew Park and Prince Andrew Gardens, which run off Donegall Road near City Hospital.

Thanks to a policy change from Belfast Council a couple of years ago, adding street signs in Irish is smooth and easy, even in unionist areas where more people oppose them than want them – but removing the name of arguably the most controversial figure in Britain right now from an English language street sign is an uphill struggle.

Stripped of his peerages in the face of continuing controversy over his links to paedophile billionaire Jeffrey Epstein, there are calls to have streets titled in honour of the man now called Andrew Mountbatten Windsor renamed to something far less controversial.

That’s going to be tough for any Belfast residents now embarrassed or annoyed by the address of the place they’ve made their home, as the council has very strict criteria for altering the names on street signs – unless it’s to add Irish, in which case it’s much simpler.

Changing the name in English requires a hefty ground-up campaign, where at least one-third of the residents of a specific street have to back the idea of changing its name and then petition the council for it, also supplying two suggestions of what the road should be called instead. The council will then survey the street; unless campaigners can win at least two-thirds of residents over, the name change move will fail.

By contrast, adding Irish signs only needs one person to suggest the move, and then just 15% of residents need to OK the change for it to go ahead. That’s less than a quarter of the amount needed for an English change, and Irish signs would be built even of the other 85% don’t want it to happen.

Irish signs don’t even need to be suggested by residents, as councillors representing the area can start the ball rolling even if no one who lives there is interesting in pushing for them.

The council used to apply the two-thirds threshold equally to all street name changes, but changed the rules for Irish signs while leaving the English criteria untouched.

The 15% threshold applies to dual language signs adding any language other than English, but in practice only Irish signs have been approved since the rule change.

Dual language signs were subject to the old policy from 1998 to 2022, at which point the council relaxed the rules.

Unionists argue the 15% threshold is far too low and kickstarting the process with a single anonymous request leaves the system open to bad actors seeking to manipulate it.

Under the rules, the council has approved surveys for Irish language signs in staunchly unionist areas, despite warnings from their own officials that the very act of asking could spark trouble. Signs have been approved in areas where just two people have said they wanted them, while a few weeks ago an Irish sign built in a unionist area where more people voted against it than for was attacked with an angle grinder.