Anglesea Street rename in limbo
Renaming Anglesea Street will have to wait until new regulations are made at a national level.
This emerged during a Cork City Council meeting on Monday after Sinn Féin Cllr Kenneth Collins asked for an update on its renaming to MacSwiney Street which is to honour the MacSwiney family.
Councillors voted to rename the street in April 2021. The Operations Directorate in City Hall then sought advice on the specific legal provisions under which to proceed.
David Joyce, Director of Services, Roads and Environment Operations Directorate, explained to Cllr Collins: “We were advised that while Part 18 of the Local Government Act 2001 did allow for the changing of names of streets, that Part 18 of the 2001 Act was substituted in its entirety by Section 48 of the Environment (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2011. The regulations that applied to historic legislation was the Statutory Instrument SI 31/1956 Local Government (Changing of Place Names) Regulations 1956.
“Given the uncertainty caused by the above described legislative changes, the provisions of the legislation were examined to obtain clarity. Following this examination there didn’t appear to be any amendment made to these regulations nor did there appear to have been any revocation of such regulations by any new regulations.”
Mr Joyce said that given this ambiguity and in order to clarify matters, the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage was consulted to query under which specific statute Cork City Council could proceed to rename a street and what was the relevant.
He continued: “The Department replied that provisions relating to placename changes in Part 18 of the amended Local Government Act 2001 were commenced in early 2019 by the Local Government Act 2001 (Commencement) Order 2019.
“Previous provisions under the Local Government Act 1946, as amended, were repealed. In addition, provisions in the Environment (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2011, amending Part 18 of the 2001 Act, were commenced by the Environment (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2011 (Commencement) Order 2019.”
He added: “The newly commenced provisions under the amended Part 18 of the 2001 Act require updated regulations to be made for the holding of plebiscites to change placenames. However, during the process of finalising new regulations, an issue was identified. The Department confirmed that they are urgently engaging in trying to resolve the issue identified.”
Mr Joyce also said: “Once draft legislative amendments have been agreed, they would hope to include them in an appropriate bill at the earliest available opportunity. Unfortunately, they were not able to provide a more precise timeline at this stage. In the meantime, they informed us that until new regulations have been made, there is currently no legal basis for the holding of a plebiscite in relation to the changing of a placename. “They went on to assure us that the Department will bear in mind Cork City Council’s interest in this matter and will keep us updated on progress.
“Further to the above clarification, the process to rename Anglesea Street or any street will have to wait until the new regulations are made because there is at present no regulations in place which provide for the holding of a plebiscite which is required as part of the process to rename a street/road,” concluded Mr Joyce.