Statement by TUV leader Jim Allister MLA:
“Last month we learned that planners were launching an Equality Impact Assessment into an illegal IRA memorial which was built in Castlederg without planning permission. The memorial was erected to commemorate local terrorists, including two IRA men who were killed when the bomb they intended for the town mercifully exploded prematurely. The public will remember that the Sinn Fein/IRA parade to mark the erection of the memorial was cited as the reason for the DUP withdrawal of support for the IRA shrine at the Maze.
“It is obvious that there is no will to act and remove this insult to innocent victims as it has dragged on for years. This is merely the latest fudge to excuse lack of action in enforcing planning law which would bind any ordinary member of the public who chose to erect an illegal structure.
“However, Castlederg is far from an isolated case when it comes to a blind eye being turned to illegal memorials to terrorists.
“In a recent answer to an Assembly question the Minister for the Environment advised me that there has not been a single instance of enforcement action against a terrorist memorial in any of the last five years.
“Given that enforcement issues around such structures is now a matter for local councils there is even less chance of action against memorials to terror. Memorial which often blight the landscape of Northern Ireland in the very areas where terrorists were most brutal.
“This is yet another example of how the feelings of victims are trampled upon in Northern Ireland and how they have been completely failed by a political system which panders to victim makers.”
Note to editors
Mr Allister’s question and the response received were as follows:
To ask the Minister of the Environment to detail the illegal memorials to Republican and Loyalist terrorists for which enforcement proceedings requiring removal have been issued in each of the last five years.
The Department does not hold information on its planning database relating to enforcement cases in such a manner where the number of ‘illegal memorials to Republican and Loyalist’ can be accurately identified.
I can confirm however that no formal enforcement action, in the form of Enforcement Notices issued has been undertaken in respect of unauthorised monuments/memorials/statues in the last five years, up to June 2015.
From 1 April 2015 responsibility for enforcement issues around such structures is a matter for local councils.