Antrim and Newtownabbey: council considering recycling street signs to cut costs
Antrim and Newtownabbey councillors have been considering recycling street signs in a bid to cut cost over dual language replacements.
On Tuesday (February 4), council’s Policy and Governance Committee approved an application for a a dual language sign at Longlands Road, Newtownabbey, with two-thirds or more residents in favour.
Three applications have progressed to stage two of the application process – Ballytromery Avenue, Crumlin; Camlin Park, Crumlin and Longlands Avenue, Newtownabbey. Canvass letters have been issued to residents of these streets.
Threemilewater Ulster Unionist Councillor Stephen Cosgrove proposed accepting the recommendation to approve the Longlands Road application, seconded by Dunsilly Alliance Cllr Jay Burbank.
Cllr Cosgrove asked about the process involved in replacing street signs which are dual language. He queried if the original street sign is “taken completely down and redone”.
He pointed out the street sign at Longlands Road is new and he asked if it would be replaced or if the dual name is placed onto the existing sign.
Cllr Cosgove continued: “It just seems a shame if we rip the whole thing out to be replaced by a new sign altogether.”
Financial Position
He suggested this sign could be given a dual language, adding “especially in the financial position we find ourselves in”.
Seconding the proposal, Cllr Burbank commented: “Something like that does make sense. I get the point.”
Threemilewater DUP Cllr Mark Cooper BEM said: “We are bound by dual language policy and residents have the right to have the language of their street. That is fine.”
However, he added he has seen “perfectly good English signs being totally removed and new dual language signs put in”. He went on to say that he hoped it was refurbished.
Previously, the cost of fabrication and installation of a sign was reported to be £500 per sign.
Helen Hall, interim director of organisation development, said she would contact the estate services team which looks after signage to bring back a report.
An application for dual language street signs to the council must be supported by a petition representing at least one-third of residents and must have the backing of the local authority before it can proceed to the next stage of canvassing street residents by post to seek their views on the request to erect a street sign in a second specified language.
If a decision is approved by the authority to erect a street sign in a second language, a translation will have to be carried out by an independent body. The second language sign will be placed below the English in lettering the same size.
Commenting on social media recently, Macedon Sinn Fein Cllr Taylor McGrann said: “The whole of Bawnmore now has a street sign in Irish. A number of streets in Longlands are now in process and hope to be approved over the coming months.”
The Dual Language Street Sign Policy was adopted by the council in May 2022. The same year, councillors agreed to the replacement of signage across the borough which would extend to 29 hamlets at a cost of £18,500.
New ‘Welcome’ signage was installed in 2022 in Ballynure, Ballyrobert, Burnside, Doagh, Dunadry, Parkgate, Straid, Templepatrick, Toome and Whiteabbey.
‘Welcome’ signs on main arterial routes into Antrim, Ballyclare, Crumlin, Glengormley and Randalstown were erected in 2019.
Michelle Weir, Local Democracy Reporter