To be a city, or not

THE shopping Mecca that is Lisburn City (especially the bits at Sprucefield) and the tranquil hamlets and villages of Lisburn City have been rocked by another row over city status.

The good burghers of Moira, Hillsborough, Annahilt and Dromore awoke on Tuesday to find that Sinn Féin members of the council (mainly representing that part of west Belfast called Twinbrook that is part of Lisburn City) were threatening to block a renewal of city status for Lisburn.

The row was over the fact that Sinn Féin council members didn’t get the fancy chains of office for Mayor and Deputy Mayor during Monday night’s vote.

That would be the chains of office for a city that come the re-drawing of the boundaries, will see some of those Sinn Féin councillors no longer representing Lisburn City.

In summary, Sinn Féin wanted to be one of the top dogs in Lisburn before the new electoral map rolls along in 2011. True to form, the unionist parties (even more paranoid than usual about ‘holding the line’ after the Euro poll) refused to play ball.

The thoughts of the Lisburn City ratepayers in Dunmurry remain unrecorded…