For the first time ever in Armagh City, Banbridge & Craigavon (ABC) Borough Council, a request for bilingual English-Irish street signage outside of Portadown has been approved.
The residential area in question is Mary Street in Lurgan. The request for the signage provision was approved at the September 3 Planning & Regulatory Services committee meeting of the local authority.
Rules governing the provision of bilingual street signage are particularly strict in the ABC Borough. As per ABC’s Street Naming and Numbering Policy, a third of residents in any given area must request bilingual signage in the first place.
If that first test is met, then all residents are canvassed, with a two-thirds majority required for a recommendation to be made for ABC councillors to approve bilingual signage – by virtue of it being a recommendation only, residents’ wishes can still be disregarded in the end, as councillors ultimately use their own discretion when ruling on such requests.
In addition, those deemed to object also include residents who did not express a view one way or the other.
A total of 15 residents were surveyed in Mary Street, with 13 responding in favour of the provision of bilingual street signage – exceeding the two-thirds majority required (a minimum of 10 residents in favour).
Two residents failed to respond to the survey and were deemed to have objected, in keeping with ABC policy.
Cllr Peter Lavery (Alliance, Lurgan DEA) commented at the meeting: “Obviously there’s more than two thirds of support of residents on the street. Therefore, the policy has been met in this instance, and I would propose that Council use its discretionary power to approve this application for dual-language street signage.”
Committee vice chair, Cllr Mary O’Dowd (Sinn Féin, Lurgan DEA) concurred with Cllr Lavery, remarking: “It has gone well past meeting the quota, and I am more than happy to use the Council’s discretionary powers to second this item.”
Cllr Kyle Moutray (DUP, Portadown DEA) requested a recorded vote.
Voting in favour of the bilingual street signage were committee chair, Cllr Kevin Savage (SF), committee vice chair, Cllr O’Dowd (SF), Cllr Fergal Donnelly (SF), Cllr Paul Duffy (SF), Cllr Lavery (Alliance), Cllr Sorchá McGeown (SF) and Cllr John Óg O’Kane (SF).
Abstaining were Cllr Scott Armstrong (DUP), Cllr Moutray (DUP) and Ald Gareth Wilson (DUP).
No one voted against the recommendation to allow discretionary powers to be used to approve the application.
