DUP councillor says party ‘warned’ dual-language street signs would cause ‘tension’ after one is defaced for second time

A DUP councillor has said her party had warned that dual-language signs would “create tensions” after a street sign in the area she represents was vandalised last week.

Sarah Bunting represents the Balmoral district, where a street sign with Irish just off the Lisburn Road was defaced for the second time in three months.

In April, the signs on Cranmore Gardens – an affluent area in the leafy suburbs – were covered in white paint, with police treating the incident as a sectarian hate crime.

On Saturday night, Ms Bunting took to X (formerly known as Twitter), to reference the latest attack in what she described as a “very middle class, well educated, mixed community, probably more likely to usually vote SDLP or Alliance”.

She posted: “While I don’t condone any damage being done to public property, the DUP group warned from the start that this dual language signs policy was going to create tensions and upset community relations.

“I received multiple emails from residents in this street, who stated they moved to the area as they wanted to get away from territorial marking of areas and that adding the Irish language signs are akin to painting the kerb stones green, white & orange.

“I hope other parties will reflect on the issues being raised by residents about the current policy when it comes time to review it.”

The Lord Mayor of Belfast previously branded the recent incident as “really disappointing”.

Alliance councillor Micky Murray added: “I’ve got most of it cleaned off, and I’ve asked council to attend to give it a good clean.”

In February at Belfast City Hall, the DUP had objected to the signs for Cranmore Gardens, following the results of a consultation of 124 residents.

The consultation at the time showed a 50-50 split between residents over the sign.

Of those who replied, 35 occupiers (28.23%) were in favour of the erection of a second street name plate, 35 occupiers (28.23%) were not in favour, and four occupiers (3.23%) had no preference either way.

At the time, Ms Bunting said “there are strong feelings on both sides about this proposal”.

“I do think this increases community tensions and is counter-productive to this council’s Good Relations Strategy,” she added.

The proposal to stop the Cranmore Gardens signs failed on a vote, with five votes in support from the DUP, and 13 votes against from Sinn Féin, Alliance, the SDLP and the Green Party.

In March, following the destruction of two signs in the Ballynafeigh area, SDLP councillor Gary McKeown called for action to combat “a cycle of vandalism” targeting bilingual street signs in Belfast.

"We seem to have entered a cycle of vandalism and replacement of bilingual signs in particular locations,” Mr McKeown said.

"While it’s really important that these signs are reinstalled when they are destroyed, proactive steps now need to e taken to try to prevent these hate crimes from happening again and to identify those responsible.

"The further destruction of bilingual signs just off the Ormeau Road is completely unacceptable.

"These are something which the community wants and which reflect the diversity of this area, so those responsible are just demonstrating their own intolerance.”