'Boycott Lisburn council over unionist bans'

Lisburn City Council should be politically isolated in Ireland, Britain and Europe if unionists do not share power with nationalists, Sinn Féin insisted today.

The party launched a campaign to tackle the decision of unionists to exclude other parties from all senior council positions in the Co Antrim city.

A year after Lisburn was awarded city status, the unionist-dominated council decided not to elect nationalists to any of the local authority’s top jobs.

The council consists of 12 Ulster Unionist, five Democratic Unionist, four Sinn Féin, three SDLP, three Alliance and two independent unionist councillors.

But unionists serve as mayor and deputy mayor, as well as the chair and vice-chairs of the five main council committees.

Nationalists claimed Lisburn, dubbed the “City for Everyone” in the campaign for city status – “re-entered the dark ages” after last month’s decision.

Sinn Féin councillor Paul Butler said it was now time to call for a boycott of the council.

“Unionists have carved up every position for themselves and have excluded nationalist representatives from every position in council,” he said.

“The council has a legacy of discrimination against nationalists but this is the final straw.”

Mr Butler said a motion calling for the proportional allocation of posts based on party strength would be put to tonight’s council meeting in the city.

“If that fails, as we suspect it will, we will be calling for Lisburn City Council to be politically isolated in Ireland, north and south, Britain and Europe,” he said.

“We want to put this issue on the agenda of anyone in the business and community sectors.

“We will also be calling on councils in the north, especially the other cities of Belfast, Derry, Newry and Mourne and Armagh to pass motions challenging what unionists have done in Lisburn, and vowing that they won’t do any business with Lisburn City Council until this issue is rectified.”