Rule-breaking Irish signs rushed through Belfast Council while £13m social housing development with 94 homes built on 'empty' street
Irish language signs that saw Belfast Council vote to break its own rules over an “empty” street are being pushed through mere months before a massive housing development is ready for people to move in.
A £13m Radius Housing scheme is currently being built in the Gasworks area of Belfast, part of a major overhaul of the area that will also see new commercial, tourist and community facilities constructed.
Projected to be finished by August this year, just under half of its 94 social homes are to go on Raphael Street – the road Belfast City Council recently voted to break its own rules over, and erect Irish language signs without asking anyone.
Those in favour of ditching policy to build the signs have argued that there’s no one on Raphael Street to ask.
Only three houses are on the road, but they’re all registered as being on a neighbouring street, leaving the area “empty” as far as the council’s dual language sign policies are concerned.
But if construction goes according to plan, within a few months Raphael Street will see a large number of families move into the new development – but by that point the Irish language signs will either be on their way or already built, whether the new people want them or not.
It’s a very different attitude to a request for dual language signs seen on nearby McClure Street.
At the same committee meeting in which the council decided to push ahead signs on Raphael Street without any public input, councillors voted to delay a decision on McClure Street for several months specifically because a new housing development recently opened.
The 20-home development is so new that no one there is yet on the electoral register, so according to council policies that street is also “empty”.
The electoral register next updates in December, and councillors voted to push back a decision until after that happens – but on Raphael Street signs are being rushed through before its much larger development opens in August.
Requests for dual-language signs are normally filed by residents of a specific street, though in the case of Raphael Street a Belfast councillor asked for them.
It only takes a single request to trigger a process in which surveys go out asking any street residents on the electoral register whether they think it’s a good idea; if 15% or more of those residents back the move, the signs will be built.
Raphael Street’s officially zoned as being in the city centre, however, meaning there should be extra checks and balances in place. After a successful survey on a city centre road, the council’s supposed to advertise an Irish sign bid to see how the general public feels, effectively offering every single person in Belfast a voice.
Adverts are to be placed in the News Letter, Irish News and Belfast Telegraph, state the council, “to give the community of users an opportunity to provide representations in relation to the proposal”.
But with no one listed on the electoral register as living in Raphael Street, there’s nobody to poll – and the council committee voted to break its own rules and ditch the newspaper ads, skipping ahead to building the signs with no input from the public at all.