Council to 'reconsider' Bobby Sands statue in west Belfast

Belfast City Council is to "reconsider" a decision to close a planning enforcement investigation over a statue of IRA hunger striker Bobby Sands.

The monument was erected last year on public land in the Twinbrook area of west Belfast without planning permission.

Councillors held a special meeting on Thursday night to debate the issue after officials had said it was "not considered expedient to take any further action".

A Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) motion condemning the statue and calling for the outcome to be "reconsidered" was backed by 27 councillors with 22 voting against and three abstentions.

Sinn Féin had tabled an unsuccessful amendment seeking a review of the "current enforcement status of all such structures" across the council area.

Sands died aged 27 during the 1981 hunger strike, in which 10 republican paramilitary prisoners starved themselves to death.

It was part of a protest in which they sought to be recognised as political prisoners during Northern Ireland's violent conflict known as the Troubles.

The statue of the former MP was unveiled last year beside an Irish republican memorial garden.

First Minister Michelle O'Neill and other Sinn Féin representatives were among those who attended on the day of the unveiling.

O'Neill last year described the statue as a "powerful tribute" and defended her attendance after facing criticism from the DUP.

The Northern Ireland Housing Executive (NIHE) later said the statue had been placed on its land "without our permission or knowledge".

The council said it conducted an investigation "in line with our planning enforcement strategy" and it was "not considered expedient to take any further action".

Speaking at Belfast City Hall meeting on Thursday, DUP councillor Dean McCullough said his party's motion was about "equality".

He said the decision to close the planning probe "strikes at the very heart of public confidence in this council".

"The public want to know that the same rules apply to everyone," he added.

Sinn Féin councillor Ciaran Beattie argued that memorial sites with no planning permission were "predominantly in unionist areas".

He said if DUP councillors "want to start removing memorials in this city, then the unionist and loyalist community will be impacted the most".

Beattie added that "people should be allowed to remember their dead in a respectful way".

His party's proposal for a review of memorials and murals across the city was defeated by 27 votes to 23.

The DUP motion was backed by other unionist parties and councillors from the Alliance Party.

Their group leader Michael Long said it was important to have a "consistent application" of the planning process.

He said they "want a process that applies to everybody and applies to everybody equally".

An amendment from the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) was also defeated.

It had called for Stormont executive ministers to "recommit" to proposals made by the Commission on Flags, Identity, Culture and Tradition.

SDLP councillor Séamas de Faoite said that "we're still stuck in a position where none of that appears to have moved forward".

Councillors from other smaller parties abstained on both the DUP and Sinn Féin proposals.

Green Party councillor Áine Groogan described the debate as "distraction politics" and accused the larger parties of "failing to deal with any of the major issues".

During the meeting, the council's chief executive John Walsh strongly criticised some of the remarks directed at planning officials.

"The issue of legacy is a difficult one but it is not appropriate that we throw officers into the middle of that," he added.