100% of respondents in Woodside Gardens support dual-language sign as Council again bypasses policy
A decision on a second application for dual language street signage has been suspended by Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon Borough Council at their full-council meeting on Monday 22nd July 2024. The Council ratified a decision taken at a recent meeting of their Planning & Regulatory Services Committee on Tuesday 9th July not to proceed with the application until further information has been gathered in the form of a site visit to the street in question. The decision regarding the application will now be taken at a special meeting of the Planning & Regulatory Services Committee meeting on the 11th September at 2pm. This is only the second application to have exceeded the required thresholds of support in the Council’s postal survey. All Unionist councillors voted against the motion to proceed with the application at Committee.
Under the Council’s current dual language street policy, which has been consistently criticised by language groups and international experts due to restrictive criteria, applications must be supported by a petition from 33% of residents supporting the application. It is understood that this petition was submitted on 30 October 2023, having obtained support from all eligible residents of Woodside Gardens. Residents were then issued with the Council’s postal survey four months later in March 2024.
In order to be successful, applications for dual language street signs in Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon Borough Council require support from 66%+ (⅔+) of residents on the electoral register living on that specific street. Non-responses are automatically recorded as votes against the application. Despite these incredibly restrictive thresholds, 90% of all residents on the street supported the application, with 100% of all responses to the survey voting in favour. The one resident who didn’t respond later contacted the council informing them of their neutral stance. There were no active objections from residents.
The Woodside Gardens’ application was initially scheduled for decision at a previous meeting of the Planning & Regulatory Services Committee in May 2024, but an anonymous request to meet with the head of the Council’s Building Control Department to discuss the Council’s dual language street signage policy resulted in a deferral. At the following Planning & Regulatory Services Committee meeting in June, Councillors decided to make allowances for written submissions regarding the application and to facilitate requests for speaking rights at their next Committee meeting on 9 July 2024. It is at this meeting that the Planning & Regulatory Services Committee, which was addressed by Conradh na Gaeilge and local residents, voted against a proposal to accept the application for Woodside Gardens. At the Committee meeting, the application was opposed by anonymous ‘residents’ of the ABC Council area who confirmed they lived between 1 - 9 miles away from the street under review. Newly re-elected MP Carla Lockhart also attended the meeting, strongly opposing the application.
Cuisle Nic Liam, Language Rights Coordinator with Conradh na Gaeilge, said:
“ABC Council has one of the most restrictive street signage policies across all local councils here, a policy which, even when all of the criteria is met, is being disapplied for Irish language applications. The unanimous support for Woodside Gardens is testament to the determination of the local Irish language community in reaffirming their right to see their language in public; a right which is enshrined in the council’s own dual language street signage policy which, to date, they have failed to honour. There is no question around the desires of the residents of this street. The Council should, at all times, seek to apply it’s own policy fairly as informed by the expressed wishes of every single respondent. This application would have been an historic first for ABC Council and a move that we should have been celebrating as heralding a new era of language equality in the area. Instead, once again, we find ourselves questioning the Council’s intent to ever honour their dual language street signage policy. We would like to commend the residents of Woodside Gardens for their determination in bringing this application forward and for supporting it in the strongest possible manner.”
Linda O’Neill, local youth and community health worker said:
“We have a vibrant, thriving and growing local Irish language community in Portadown. As a parent of two children who are part of that community and whose lives have been enriched as a result of the numerous benefits of receiving their formal education through the medium of their native language, approving this application would have been a positive step forward for my children and others. It brings with it a sense of normalisation which cannot be overlooked and affords those with little or no experience with the language to engage with it in a manner through our shared placenames and shared spaces. Visible representation of the Irish language by Council and other public bodies is long overdue.
Residents in Woodside Gardens followed all council procedures and engaged faithfully in this process. They responded to the postal survey and were overwhelming in their support for this application. As ratepayers, their wishes cannot and should not be ignored and their voices must be heard.”
This is only the second time an application in this council area has successfully achieved the required levels of support. The first application, made for Woodside Hill, received support from 64 residents, with only 3 residents opposing, was refused in 2023 and is currently before High-Court Judicial Review proceedings (see:
