Street to get second Irish sign survey over concerns ‘renovations’ meant residents did not receive details

Derry City and Strabane District Council will carry out a second survey of residents over proposed Irish language street signage after it was claimed renovation works may have prevented some from taking part.

The move has been labelled “absurd” by the DUP deputy mayor, who said demand for the sign “didn’t meet the threshold – end of”.

Survey correspondence over a proposed bilingual sign at Creggan Heights was sent to the street’s 141 properties last October, but the council received only 25 responses.

The council’s dual language street naming policy was updated last year, with the residents’ support threshold for any new sign reduced from 50 percent to just 15 percent.

Out of the 25 responses from Creggan Heights, the 15 percent threshold was not met.

Independent councillor Gary Donnelly said he had spoken with residents of the street who were unaware of the survey.

However, at February’s full council meeting, the local authority’s director of environment and regeneration, Karen Phillips, said officials had investigated and found normal processes were followed.

She said that as the threshold was not met, then under the policy “it would be three years before we can reconsider this matter”.

Mr Donnelly noted that members had discussed late postal delivery across the entire district “for months and months”, while SDLP councillor John Boyle proposed the council reissue the survey at Creggan Heights due to “extensive renovations works” on the street.

UUP alderman Derek Hussey said members “might as well be blaming it on climate change”, while DUP alderman and deputy mayor Niree McMorris argued that as late post was an issue for the entire district it should not lead to a second survey.

“The reality is out of 25 responses they didn’t meet the 15 percent threshold, so why do we keep revisiting decisions that have already been through the process so the outcome can be changed?” she asked.

“The responses were received, it didn’t meet the threshold, end of.

“This regurgitating of decisions until we get the right decision that people want, I just think it’s absurd.”

Councillor Boyle’s proposal was approved, despite the UUP and DUP votes against it.