Belfast City Council apology for Irish language street sign spelling mistakes
Five dual language street signs featuring spelling mistakes have been put up on three different streets in Belfast.
Belfast City Council apologised for the error and told UTV the signs would be replaced "at no additional cost to the council".
The signs are being replaced after mistakes were seen in streets across the city, including La Salle Park in west Belfast, Haypark Avenue in the south and Ashgrove Park in the north. Speaking about an error in signage erected in Haypark Avenue, south Belfast, SDLP Councillor Séamas de Faoite said it was "staggering".
In this instance, the Irish translation of the word park, phairc, has been spelled with an 'E' instead of a 'C'.
According to the council's website, a consultation to acquire a dual language street sign can be triggered by a resident who is registered on the electoral role, an elected councillor or a developer.
If 15% or more of those living on the street or road want to have a dual language sign it can be erected - if an resident doesn't respond to our survey it's not considered to be against the application. There is also an equality assessment carried out on each application.
Séamas de Faoite said his party raised the spelling mistakes with council and "established that the correct spelling and translation were used in the committee report for this sign and this was provided to the contractor".
“I welcome confirmation from council that the contractor will cover the cost of replacing these signs, but questions remain about how this was allowed to happen in the first place," he added.
"We need to see significant checks put in place to ensure that this never happens again, we should not have been put in a position where clearly incorrect signs were installed in our community.
“Obtaining Irish language signs or any other dual language signage for areas that want them took a serious effort from campaigners and councillors and this has been an embarrassing episode for the council.
"The least we should expect is that when requests for these signs pass through council that we can see them put in place in the correct manner.”
Belfast City Council told UTV a "quality check" is being carried out on "other recently installed signage".
"We apologise for this error and will be urgently reviewing our quality assurance processes to ensure this does not happen again," the council added.
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