Three more residential areas within the ABC Borough will soon have bilingual English-Irish street signage, namely Andre Close, Ashley Close, and Ashley Heights in Portadown.
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 have to 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.
In Andre Close, 12 residents were surveyed, with 11 responses in favour of bilingual signage, and one non-response deemed, as per the ABC Council’s policy, not to be in favour.
The required two-thirds majority was therefore comfortably met.
The recommendation to allow the ABC Council to use its discretionary powers to approve bilingual street signs in Andre Close was proposed by Councillor Paul Duffy (SF, Portadown DEA), and seconded by Councillor Mary O’Dowd (SF, Lurgan DEA).
Also recommending approval was Councillor Peter Lavery (Alliance, Lurgan DEA) who stated: “The policy has been met in this instance. Therefore, the proposed route I think is appropriate and we should approve this recommendation, approve this sign.”
As has been the case on previous occasions in relation to such requests for bilingual street signage, Alderman Gareth Wilson (DUP, Cusher DEA) requested a recorded vote, stating: “As in previous ones where there appears to be a high level of support in an area for a sign, I haven’t been made aware of any anxiety towards this particular application, but I would like a recorded vote on the matter, in line with previous decisions.”
Voting in favour of allowing the ABC Council to use its discretionary powers to approve bilingual street signage were Councillor Kevin Savage (SF), Councillor Mary O’Dowd (SF), Councillor Paul Duffy (SF), Councillor Peter Lavery (Alliance), Councillor Sorchá McGeown (SF) and Councillor John Óg O’Kane (SF).
Abstaining were Councillor Kyle Moutray (DUP) and Alderman Gareth Wilson (DUP).
In Ashley Close, 21 residents were surveyed, with 17 responses in favour of bilingual English-Irish signage, well in excess of a two-thirds majority, and four non-responses deemed not to be in favour.
This time round, the recommendation to allow the ABC Council to use its discretionary powers to approve bilingual street signs was proposed by Councillor Peter Lavery and seconded by Councillor Paul Duffy.
Alderman Gareth Wilson requested a recorded vote. The outcome of the vote was the same as above, and the request was formally approved.
In Ashley Heights, 22 residents were surveyed. A two-thirds majority in favour of the request was required, namely a minimum of 15 residents in favour.
As it happened, 17 residents responded in favour of the request, while five residents were deemed to be opposed to such provision.
On this occasion, those deemed to be opposing the request included a mixture of residents who had responded to express views against the provision of bilingual street signs, and non-responses.
The recommendation to allow the ABC Council to use its discretionary powers to approve bilingual street signs was proposed by Councillor Mary O’Dowd and seconded by Councillor Peter Lavery.
Alderman Gareth Wilson requested a recorded vote. Again, the outcome of the vote was the same as on the two previous occasions, and the request was formally approved.
To date, all requests for bilingual English-Irish street signs have come from the Portadown area.
Narrowly missed out on bilingual signs
The rules governing the provision of bilingual street signage are extremely precise in the ABC Borough, and one unnamed residential area failed to meet the criteria for such provision by the narrowest of margins.
The residential area in question, simply referred to by the ABC Council as ’11/24_18′, had met an initial test in that at least one third of residents had signed a petition requesting that householders be canvassed to ascertain their views on the provision of English-Irish street signs where they live.
Consequently, 17 residents were surveyed. A two-thirds majority was required for the signs to be installed. Two thirds of 17 is 11.33, however – and crucially – that figure was rounded up to 12, and as only 11 residents requested bilingual signage, they failed to meet the two-thirds majority test.
Six residents were deemed not to be in favour of such provision. This was a mix of residents stating that they were against bilingual signage, and residents who did not respond.
Speaking at the July 2 ABC Planning & Regulatory committee meeting, Councillor Paul Duffy (SF, Portadown DEA) contended that the 11.33 figure should have been rounded down to 11, as opposed to being rounded up to 12, in which case the two-thirds majority test would have been met.
He stated: “Under the decimal point system, two thirds of 17 is 11.3. Usually it would be rounded down [in the case of] 1, 2, 3, and 4, and then 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 rounded up.
“So 11.3 would usually be rounded down. So what way do you stand on that, and is the wording correct within our policy, if this does go down the legal route?”
Head of Building Control, Tom Lavery replied: “As you say, the two thirds of that would be 11.33. Now, we have always rounded it up, the reason for that being it is a poll vote and we can’t have .33 of a person.
“But we also take legal senior counsel advice on this one, and our policy does state that the results of the survey [must] show at least two thirds of the occupiers, so 11 is almost two thirds but it’s not at least two thirds.
“So we would be subject to a challenge for not complying with our own policy, if we were to round down, and that’s the advice of senior counsel, so we followed that advice.
“The policy could be subject to review if members so wish, and we could consider the wording under that review.”
Referring to judicial proceedings which are ongoing in relation to another area within the borough where bilingual signage is being sought, Cllr Duffy continued: “I know there’s currently an ongoing court case, but once it’s probably done, dusted and out of the way, I would like a review of the system, but then we’ll talk about it then.”
Meanwhile, in eight other residential parts of the ABC Borough – unnamed at this stage – at least a third of residents have expressed support for bilingual street signs.
These residential areas vary in size from 10 to 177 houses.
Given the current high volume of dual-language applications which ABC Council is receiving, a maximum of three surveys will be conducted every month.
Referring to the growing number of applications for English-Irish street signs in the ABC Borough, Cllr Duffy remarked: “It’s great to see that the language is thriving.
“There’s a demand for it and it is actually good to see that young people and old people alike are looking at their street names in their native language.”
