The DUP has claimed the majority of locals living there are not interested in the change.
On Friday, members at a Belfast City Council committee agreed to initiate consultation with residents of Prince Andrew Park and Prince Andrew Gardens, neighbouring streets off the Donegall Road in the Village area of South Belfast.
The decision will have to be ratified at the full council meeting next month.
The committee made the majority decision despite warnings from a DUP councillor that the general feeling in both streets was to leave things as they are, as a change would create inconvenience and difficulties in terms of contact details for the residents living there.
Prince Andrew Gardens in Belfast
Despite the warning, DUP members did not object to the decision at the committee level.
The former Prince Andrew and Duke of York is now known as Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, having been stripped of his royal titles and honours by his brother King Charles III last year over his links to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, and allegations of sexual crimes from Virginia Giuffre, who was a minor under US law at the time of the alleged incidents.
Andrew has always strenuously denied any wrongdoing.
Elected members at the full council last November asked for a report on the process for renaming streets, in the context of the Andrew links.
An officer report for the January Strategic Policy and Resources Committee states: “The council needs to carefully consider any application for renaming of streets within its boundaries, as renaming of streets has profound implications on address management for the city, emergency services and the public.
“In practice this will primarily impact residents and any business owners and their tenants whose personal, business and legal documentation associated with their current address will need to be changed. This will be the responsibility of residents and local businesses.”
Under current policy at City Hall, any application for the renaming of a street is expected to be accompanied by an initial petition of at least one third of all residents of the street showing a positive interest in changing the street name. The policy says that a request from an individual without the support of a survey or signed petition will not be considered.
Prince Andrew Park and Prince Andrew Gardens in south Belfast
The initial application and petition would indicate what name is being proposed with a second choice of street name. If the application is approved, the opinions of those affected by the renaming proposal would be sought.
The council report states: “The council has not received an application from an individual to rename Prince Andrew Park and Prince Andrew Gardens. For information, it should be noted that there are only residential properties within the two streets, there are no commercial premises.
“Members may decide that despite the agreed process set out, and in the absence of an application from an individual to rename the two streets, the renaming process should be started for both Prince Andrew Park and Prince Andrew Gardens.
“If this is the case, members should consider whether the requirement set out in the policy for an initial petition should be waived. The usefulness of the initial petition (built into the process to illustrate to members that the process should be triggered) should be considered and it may be that members may deem it unnecessary both in terms of staff resource and duplication of the survey that will ultimately be undertaken and presented to committee.
“If the renaming process is agreed to be started for both streets, alternative names will be required to be included in the survey undertaken. As these alternative names will not be included in an initial application, it is proposed that officers work with elected members from Botanic District Electoral Area (where the two streets are located) to determine alternative street names alongside residents.”
Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor was formally stripped of his ‘prince’ titles and asked to vacate Royal Lodge (Jordan Pettitt/PA)
News Catch Up – Thursday 22 January
DUP councillor Sarah Bunting told Friday’s meeting: “We have a process and a policy already there for this. Whenever other areas started to look at changing street names, Councillor Tracy Kelly had engaged with some of the residents in these streets to see if there was a wish from them to look at changing the name.
“The vast majority of people came back with the same concerns that this (would force them to change) the address with their doctors, dentists, for their hospital appointments, their online accounts, all that. It would also be costly if they had to change addresses on passports and driving licences, and any regular ID they have with addresses.”
She said: “While we are not opposed to changing the name, that wish doesn’t seem to be there from the residents. I am certainly happy to look at that if a request comes in from a resident on one of those streets, but at this point in time I don’t think we should make that decision ourselves.”
A council officer said: “There is the potential for officers to undertake that initial petition, to see whether there is a third of residents that would support that going forward. That could be the initial engagement, but obviously there are implications on our resources to do that.”
Alliance councillor Micky Murray successfully proposed the council consult with residents of both streets, with the initial engagement suggested by officials.
Alliance councillor Michael Long said: “I think it is important it is not just anecdotal (evidence we receive) as to who is in and who is not in. To have a proper evidence base it would make sense to actually do the survey.
“If people decide they don’t want it then that is up to them.”