Sinn Fein used social media to call on people to come on “a walk for Irish unity” on 26 February at 2pm, meeting at Davagh Forest near Cooktown. The walk then proceeded onto a public road and to the nearby Beaghmore Stone Circle. Sinn Féin MLA and Assembly Equality Spokesperson, Emma Sheerin, tweeted a photo of the event.
But UUP councillor Meta Graham said that her planned use of the forest park and its observatory at that time with her own grandchildren was disrupted by the party political event, and that some ratepayers had complained.
“I was sent a private message with a screenshot of the Mid Ulster Sinn Fein page that was advertising the rally,” she said. “They were asking, What sort of council we had that we allowed things like that to happen on what they called, council property?’”
She had made reservations to take her grandchildren to cycle through the forest park to the on-site observatory at the time the Sinn Fein event was to take place.
“We went later in the day than we had originally planned because I didn’t want to be getting mixed up in any sort of political gathering with my grandchildren.”
She added that ratepayers’ money is going to the upkeep of the forest park facilities. “Everybody should be able to use council facilities equally and not feel uncomfortable about doing so,” she said.
The issue was raised in the council’s monthly meeting on Thursday, where Chief Executive Adrian McCreesh said the matter was drawn to his attention before it was due to take place.
“The policy itself is very clear, in our view, that it extends only to the hire of facilities and the rooms therein,” he told councillors.
“It is silent about outdoor and open recreational space as these areas are normally open to the public and open to public access and use, where bookings are not required.”
The council had issued a statement in advance advising that anyone wishing to rearrange their booking for the observatory would be facilitated.
The council advised the News Letter that the policy on using indoor council facilities for party political events had been subjected to a compulsory equality impact assessment. The chief executive had told councillors they may want to review it so that it might also apply outdoors, it added. Sinn Fein was invited to comment.
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