THE DUP has launched a legal challenge to contest the name of the new Derry City and Strabane District Council
DUP councillor Gary Middleton said today that the decision “adversely affects a section of the community”.
The legal challenge, known as a call-in procedure, will allow solicitors to review the motion, he said.
“It will come back to us via the town clerk’s report, by that stage solicitors will have been involved and will have formed an opinion, which will be presented to us at council,” said Cllr Middleton.
“It would be wrong to assume anything, but regardless of the outcome the message that we want to send is that it’s not going to be acceptable to railroad decisions through.
“This is a new council being formed and we had the perfect opportunity to try and get agreement around the name issue.
“Sinn Féin and the SDLP can no longer say they work on a cross party basis when they make these decisions without discussion.”
But Sinn Féin councillor Mickey Cooper said his party were focused on the name being representative of the council, not the city.
“This is very much based on the need to have ‘city’ included in the name, we wanted that reflected because we are actually a city and that brings a whole range of benefits in terms of branding and everything else,” he told Radio Foyle.
“This was a council motion so we were happy to discuss it with the DUP as much as they wanted beforehand.
“I don’t think anyone should be surprised at our stance that the name should be Derry City and Strabane district council.”
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