Mid Ulster District Council's new chair bans praise of outstanding people in chamber

Councillor Eugene McConnell ruled at last Thursday’s monthly meeting of the local authority that he would no longer allow elected representatives to place on record words of congratulations to outstanding citizens of the district.

Instead, residents worthy of praise will be congratulated privately, in the form of correspondence from Cllr McConnell to the said deserving individuals – an approach which he deems to be more appropriate and time-efficient.

And while the Sinn Féin councillor for Clogher Valley did allow a couple of brief tributes at the start of the meeting, he then made his position clear, stating: “All those other [councillors] that asked for reference to an acknowledgement for their achievements or accomplishments that have been brought to my attention, I will ensure that a letter of congratulations and appreciation will be issued from me as Chair of the council.”

Councillor Clement Cuthbertson, however, was under the impression that a few words of praise in relation to deserving individuals were still in keeping with standard council proceedings.

As he assumed that there was still scope to briefly acknowledge outstanding Mid Ulster residents, the DUP representative for Dungannon DEA commented: “I want to pay tribute to Noel Irwin MBE who was awarded on the King’s Birthday Honours.

“The council worked with Noel in his role as president of the Royal British Legion here in Dungannon, moving towards the improvement works for the Moy and Dungannon war memorials.”

Cllr Cuthbertson was interrupted at that stage by the new council chairman, who told him: “Sorry, as I said in my opening remarks, those that did come in, all of them will be rightly acknowledged and will receive a letter from myself congratulating them and acknowledging their work, and everything that they have achieved.

“What I’ve said is going to happen right across the spectrum, so I don’t want to leave anybody feeling that they’re not going to be recognised.

“The merits of their achievements will be acknowledged through a letter from myself, so I don’t want to be going into each individual one.

“I hope that the council and the chamber will accept my ruling on that.”

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Cllr Cuthbertson, who was clearly surprised by the new policy, asked: “So Chair, individual councillors can’t offer congratulations from now on, as the congratulations will only be coming from yourself?”

The new council chairman confirmed that this would indeed be the case: “That’s the way it’s going to be. Anything that rightly deserves recognition or acknowledgement, I will ensure that that’s done through the proper channels of a letter of congratulations from the Chair.

“It doesn’t need to come here, it will be done by me.”

Cllr Cuthbertson still felt that he had adhered to due procedure: “But Chair, I [sent] an email at 7.50pm on Monday.”

Cllr McConnell interrupted him again, stating: “Sorry, I’ve made a ruling on that and the chamber has accepted that.”