Third council loosens rule on building Irish street signs, allowing them to go up even if 85% of people don't want them

Derry City and Strabane Council has followed Belfast’s lead by introducing the much lower threshold for dual language signage, joining Northern Ireland’s capital city and Fermanagh and Omagh Council in constructing them if just 15% of householders on any given street want them.

And surveys bearing that 15% threshold for dual language signs can be triggered by just a single person asking for it – a situation that’s angered unionists in all three councils.

One Derry and Strabane councillor, Ulster Unionist Derek Hussey, complained that 15% was too low, drawing an analogy that it would mean council committees passing new policies based on the votes of just two politicians. “Two members of a committee could propose something, and that would pass – where’s the democracy in that?” he asked when the new threshold was introduced.

The previous standard for dual language signs was that at least 33% of a street’s residents needed to sign a petition to start the process, and 66% of those surveyed had to be in favour to get the signage built.

In 2022, Belfast moved to only need one person to trigger surveys and bring in the 15% threshold, and started making decisions under that policy the following year. In 2023, Fermanagh and Omagh decided to knock its criteria down to 15%, and within the last few weeks Derry and Strabane has followed suit.

Four councils – Ards and North Down, Armagh City Banbridge and Craigavon, Antrim and Newtownabbey, and Lisburn and Castlereagh – still use the 66% threshold. Two, Mid-Ulster and Newry Mourne and Down, need more than 50% of those surveyed to back signs.

Although the process can be used for signs in any language other than English, the overwhelming majority of applications are for Irish.

Lower thresholds have been welcomed by Irish language activists and nationalist politicians, who argue they’re a boon for minority languages in general.

But in Belfast, the effect on Irish – and specifically Irish – signs has been notable, as the council has approved more street signage in the language over the last two years than it did in the previous quarter of a century.

The first decision under the new rules was made in March 2023. Between then and last month, 228 streets were signed off for Irish language signs by the council; over the 24 years the previous and much tighter policy ran, 226 were approved.

In addition, every single dual language sign approved under the new rules has been in Irish – though it’s known applications for other languages, ranging from Ulster Scots to Hebrew to Japanese, have been filed.

Under the old policy, three Ulster Scots signs were built over 24 years. All other signs the council approved during that period were in Irish.

Almost 1,000 requests for dual language signs covering more than 650 streets are still on the council’s waiting lists.

Belfast’s policy has been particularly controversial in recent months as applications for Irish signs have come in for staunchly unionist streets. Often officials warn that the simple act of surveying those areas could lead to trouble, but politicians regularly vote to do it anyway.