THE erection of Irish language street signs on a North Belfast street has moved a step closer despite local responses not meeting the current Council policy criteria.
At Belfast City Council’s People and Communities Committee this week, 12 councillors voted for the Council to use discretionary powers to push through the plan to erect four Irish language signs on Clifton Street.
A final decision on the erection of four dual language signs along the street was further delayed to await the response of one outstanding property on whether the owner or occupier supported the move.
The result revealed at this week’s council committee indicated the application for Irish signs hit 64.3 per cent in favour, just below the 66.6 per cent figure required under the Council’s current policy to erect the signs.
The final result showed nine occupiers (64.3 per cent) were in favour of the erection of a second street nameplate and one occupier (7.1 per cent) had no preference either way.
Two occupiers (14.3 per cent) were not in favour of the erection of a second nameplate, and two occupiers (14.3 per cent) did not respond to the survey.
Councillors were given legal advice at last December’s committee that given such “marginal” figures the committee could have “discretion” to go ahead and approve all four Irish street signs on Clifton Street. All members approved the signage with four DUP members voting against.
DUP Councillor Nicola Verner told the committee: “I don’t think we should proceed with this, it doesn’t meet the current Council policy. In fact there are no exceptional circumstances forwarded from the applicants' point of view.
“I don’t think there has been any other circumstance whereby the committee has used its discretion to overturn Council policy and go ahead with something that doesn’t meet the threshold.”
The committee decision to erect the signs awaits ratification at next month’s full council meeting, where it is expected to pass with support from Sinn Féin, Alliance, the Green Party, the SDLP and People Before Profit, who all voted for the plan at committee level.
The signs will cost approximately £450.
A new policy for dual language signs was ratified in January last year, and is expected to replace the current policy soon.
It will mean at least one resident of any Belfast street, or a councillor, is all that is required to trigger a consultation on a second nameplate, with 15 per cent in favour being sufficient to erect the sign.
The Clifton Street responses would satisfy the incoming criterion, which is currently being consulted on.
