A consultation survey has shown majority support for new dual language street sign policy in Belfast.
Belfast City Council has published a report of a consultation on proposed changes to its dual language street signs policy, and conclusions reached in the accompanying Equality Impact Assessment.
At this month’s full council meeting councillors agreed the controversial new policy to “go live” - 18 months after the policy was originally agreed in the chamber. 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 voted against it.
READ MORE: Clifton Street Irish street sign saga comes to conclusion with council approval
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.
Up until now, 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. Non-responses will no longer be counted as “against” votes, and there will be an equality assessment for each application.
The public consultation was available online between November last year and February this year. There were 1,078 written responses - 785 in the English language version and 293 in the Irish language version.
Of the 854 respondents who answered the community background question, 297 people (37.8 percent) identified as having a protestant background, 276 people (35.1 percent) identified as having a catholic background, and 213 people (27.1 percent) identified as being neither catholic nor protestant. Responses were received from each postcode in Belfast, with the largest number of responses coming from North and West Belfast.
The combined total of responses were in favour of four proposed changes to the policy where respondents were asked to express agreement or disagreement.
Change to the application method for dual language street signs found 59 percent strongly agreeing, 0.9 percent neither agreeing or disagreeing, and 40.1 percent strongly disagreeing. Change to the threshold for agreeing to dual language street signs found 58.7 percent strongly agreeing, 0.6 percent neither agreeing or disagreeing, and 40.7 percent strongly disagreeing.
Change to the threshold for agreeing to dual language street signs found 58.7 percent strongly agreeing, 0.6 percent neither agreeing or disagreeing, and 40.7 percent strongly disagreeing. Changes to how non-responses are classified found 62 percent strongly agreeing, 3 percent neither agreeing or disagreeing, and 35 percent strongly disagreeing.
The report states : “Officers analysed the written comments to determine themes in responses. The findings from this were that those who were broadly opposed to the proposed changes commented negatively on the cost and how the outworking of the proposed policy might be forced on communities by a minority, thereby causing division or tension.
“Those in favour of the proposed policy commented positively on how this would enhance the visibility of the Irish language and promote equality and inclusion. Respondents also noted how the proposed policy would be in keeping with best practice under the UN Special Rapporteur guidance.”
The final report of the Equality Impact Assessment consultants states: “while the consultation has revealed a lack of consensus with regard to the proposed changes to the policy, and indeed has identified a strong division of opinion, there is nothing inherent in the feedback received to suggest that, at this time, the proposed changes should not now be adopted - but on the understanding that the policy should be subject to rigorous review after a period of two years.”
With regard to the policy potentially disrupting good relations, the EQIA report states that “sufficient and proportionate checks and balances have been incorporated within the application process to minimise this risk.”
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