Belfast Council approves Irish language signs on two house street with 50/50 split
Irish dual language street signs have been approved for a two house street in South Belfast where one residency voted in favour and one voted against.
At a Belfast City Council Committee meeting this week, elected members agreed dual English and Irish language signs for Grangeville Drive, BT10, off Upper Lisburn Road.
The street is called Céide Bhaile na Gráinsí in Irish. Nine other streets were agreed for dual English and Irish language signs at different parts of the city during the monthly meeting of the council’s People and Communities Committee.
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At Grangeville Drive, two occupiers were in favour of the erection of a second street name plate, while two occupiers were not in favour.
At the committee meeting, DUP Councillor for Balmoral Sarah Bunting said: “I am happy to agree to most of these, but I am going to raise again the 50/50 split in Grangeville Drive. This highlights how the policy can literally split neighbours - this street has two houses. One house is for the signs and one house is not.
“It is highlighting how (the policy) is causing those divisions, and upsetting good relations in the city. We have raised this time and time again. We have come back with what is probably a 100 percent response rate for the first time ever, and it is literally a 50/50 split in the one street.”
Councillor Bunting did not make a proposal and the 10 streets were approved for new signage. There will be a cost of approximately £4,680 to cover the cost of the manufacturing and erection of this batch dual language street signs.
In 2022 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 supported the new street sign policy, while three unionist parties, the DUP, UUP and PUP, voted 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.
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