Rosetta area Irish language street sign plan deferred despite more votes against

A controversial application for an Irish language street sign in East Belfast will not be terminated, despite more residents objecting to it than supporting it in a council survey.

At a Belfast City Council committee meeting this week, all parties except the DUP voted to put an application for Irish language dual street signage at Wynchurch Avenue, in the Rosetta area of Belfast, to “the bottom of the queue”.

The application for the Irish language sign at Wynchurch Avenue, in a September re-survey, passed the 15 percent threshold of residents to erect the signs, with 17 occupiers (15.04 percent) in favour of the street being named “Ascaill Wynchurch.”

However 32 occupiers (28.32 percent) were also not in favour of the erection of a second street nameplate, 2 occupiers had no preference either way, and 62 occupiers (54.87 percent) did not respond to the survey.

The first survey in the summer saw 20 occupiers (17.70 percent) in favour and 30 occupiers (26.55 percent) not in favour. 113 occupiers were surveyed in each. The cost would be £570 to cover the manufacturing and erection of four signs.

Last year councillors agreed a new policy on dual language street signs. Sinn Féin, Alliance, the SDLP, the Green Party, and the People Before Profit Party all support the new street sign policy, while the three unionist parties, the DUP, UUP and PUP, are against it.

The new policy means 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 percent in favour being sufficient to erect the sign. Non-responses will no longer be counted as “against” votes, and there will be an equality assessment for each application.

Before that the policy required 33.3 percent of the eligible electorate in any Belfast street to sign a petition to begin the process, and 66.6 percent to agree to the new dual language sign on the street.

A council report states: “The re-survey for Wynchurch Avenue demonstrates compliance with the threshold contained within the policy. However, the committee is reminded that the council retains a residual discretion under the policy to decide to erect or not to erect a street sign in a language other than English in certain circumstances. This will be done on a case-by-case basis.”

The report states that councillors can depart from the policy when there are “clear reasons” to do so. This includes the views of the occupiers of the street, if there are any identified “potential adverse impacts on equality, good relations and rural needs,” and “consideration of the local context of the application.”

The report adds: “One resident in favour of the dual language nameplates sent a letter raising concerns for the attention of the People and Communities Committee on 16th June 2023 following the Committee decision on 13th June to resurvey Wynchurch Avenue.

“They believed that a new cavass of residents would likely see more votes against bi-lingual signage, and it is profoundly undemocratic. They are of the opinion ‘that the practice of recall votes initiated by committee is likely to have a chilling effect on future applications for bilingual signage’.

“They allege that ‘the committee believes the anti-Gaelic talking point that a supplementary sign is a sectarian marker rather than, as the rest of the world believes, evidence of tolerance and pluralism’. One resident who responded in favour of the dual language sign has stated ‘please do not ignore our vote and make us do this a third time’.

The report added: “Another resident from Wynchurch Avenue who is not in favour of the dual language name plate has concerns about the cost of the sign and feels that it is a waste of money. They are happy for a second sign as long as it is not public money and feel that those who really want it should pay for it.

“A resident who is not in support of the dual language name plate said that this was an inclusive mixed area where both communities coexisted beside each other. While they support the rights of those who use the Irish language, they do not see the benefit of the change, and feel it will add nothing except to single out the street.

“Another resident provided a letter addressed to the elected members regarding this application. They raised concerns that the majority of voting residents do not want the signs erected, that people live in the street due to the fact that it is mixed, and that the erection of the signs would create an opportunity for a sense of unease in a street where people live in harmony.

“They also raised concerns that the street could become a target for those who oppose the signs, that erecting signage reflecting one or other community is divisive and unnecessary, and that the money could be used much more effectively. "

At the council’s People and Communities Committee meeting, Alliance Councillor Micky Murray said: “I think it is important, as it has reached the 15 percent threshold, that it is not refused or rejected, and that we acknowledge the people who have responded to the survey to say they are not in favour. I propose we put it at the bottom of the queue, and look at it at a later date.”

DUP Councillor Sarah Bunting unsuccessfully proposed the council did not go ahead with the application, and did not erect the Irish nameplate. She said: “This is now the second survey. We had people contact us and ask are they going to keep taking surveys until certain people get the right answers, and will this be forced through on communities.

“It is creating tensions within the street. There are only 15.04 percent of people who were in favour of it, with almost double that not in favour. We had a conversation when this policy was being set, that it wouldn’t be forced on people where it was quite obvious that the majority of the street didn’t want it.”

Sinn Féin Councillor Micheal Donnelly said: “Nobody is forcing a dual language street sign anywhere. That threshold has been met twice, and we are supporting a deferral and putting it to the bottom of the queue.

“I know there are small margins, but it has been met. This is where there is maturity in the committee, we are not just going with the policy and saying ‘let’s make Wynchurch’ dual language. We are saying ‘let’s take a bit of time’ for non-respondents. There were 59 non-respondents the first time around, now there are 62. This is a mature decision to look at it later.”

DUP Councillor Tracy Kelly said: “We made it clear when the 15 percent was introduced that it was far too low. When you have nearly double that on the street who don’t want it, it does feel like you are forcing it onto communities. I think you are doing the Irish language a disservice by doing that, because you are putting barriers in the way in certain streets.”

DUP Councillor Nicola Verner said: “Is there a timescale for this, you say it will go to the bottom of the pile, but when will we see this again? The residents already feel they are not being listened to, and are actually quite annoyed they have been surveyed twice.

“Is it that it will be surveyed some time in the future when maybe we think we will get more yeses? When is it proposed this will be looked at again?”

A council officer replied: “We don’t have a time scale to the entire list. We know there are a number of applications we are working through, and we will just simply have to put it to the end of that list. I can’t give a specific time scale.”

DUP Councillor Tracy Kelly said: “I don’t think that is good enough. The residents have been surveyed twice, they will be coming to us and asking us what this means, and we will have nothing to tell them. We need to make a decision that we put the signs on or we don’t.

In a vote on the proposal to put to the bottom of the list and defer the application, 15 elected members were in favour, from Sinn Féin, Alliance, the SDLP and the Greens, while five were against, from the DUP.

In the six months since the policy changed in summer 2022, a backlog built up of over 600 applications for Irish street signs, none of which were processed until this year. It is believed that the backlog remains in the hundreds.