Sinn Féin has criticised a £40,000 Belfast City Council budget for a pumpkin garden in the front of City Hall for Halloween.
The party tried and failed to block a one-off payment by the council for Halloween “animation” and criticised the payment for not going out to open bidding for groups across the city.
It comes after a committee meeting last month saw councillors agree “direct awards” of £40,000 for Halloween activity and £20,000 for busking activity.
It will be the first Halloween events held on the lawn at Belfast City Hall.
The Belfast One Business Improvement District will create five monsters in buildings across the city for Halloween, and the council has committed to creating two more and a monster trail with the money, as well as monster eyes in trees on Donegall Place.
The remaining money from the £40,000 funding for Halloween will go to a pumpkin patch in the grounds of City Hall over two to three days.
Around £20,000 will also go to Belfast One to run a busking competition.
At Belfast City Council meeting earlier this week, Sinn Féin’s Ronan McLaughlin said: “We like to talk about carve-ups in this organisation, this is for a pumpkin carve-up out the front of the City Hall”.
He added: “The problem for this is that it didn’t go through any sort of process, it wasn’t evaluated, or scored.
“Basically this organisation came to us, we said that sounds like a good idea, here is potentially £60,000.
“I don’t think that is a good way of doing business, and I don’t think it is fair on any other organisations within this city that have events across the city.”
He proposed that the £60,000 meant for the Belfast One Halloween and busking events instead be put into a fund across the city, from which any organisation could apply for animation in the city centre “or in any other community”.
He proposed the application process would be scored and evaluated.
On a vote the proposal fell, with 22 votes in support from Sinn Féin and People Before Profit, and 33 votes against the proposal from the DUP, Alliance, SDLP, Greens and UUP.
SDLP councillor Séamas de Faoite said: “We have all expressed concerns in the past where funds have been brought forward, and there hasn’t been entirely open processes.
“What I would say is that this project is probably at a slightly more advanced stage, it is not just what is planned in front of the City Hall, which I believe is a pumpkin patch, but there are other forms of animation planned.”
He suggested an amendment to Mr McLaughlin’s proposal, which could see additional funds “coming through from Levelling Up” be used to “create the type of pot that Councillor McLaughlin is talking about”.
But this was not accepted by the Sinn Féin representative.
DUP councillor Andrew McCormick said the council should support the original plan for the £40,000 Halloween spend, which will “bring more people and more tourism into this city”.
Sinn Féin councillor Ciaran Beattie said his party does “support events in the city, particularly those that animate the city and bring visitors to the city”.
But he added: “This was basically a cheque written for this organisation to go and buy £40,000 worth of pumpkins.
“We have to remember, this is public money we are talking about here, and effectively what we are doing with public money now is blowing it on pumpkins.”
