Belfast byelaw limits street preaching volume

A byelaw limiting the volume of street preaching has been voted through by Belfast City Council.

The new rules included restrictions on amplification for street evangelists and buskers to 70 decibels, the level of a vacuum cleaner or washing machine, or be fined up to £500. They also ban “graphic images” in reference to anti-abortion protests.

Proponents claim the limit is needed to reduce noise in the city, but critics have pointed out that other loud activities such as pickets, charity collections and parades are exempt, and have warned that it attempts to “effectively ban open air preaching”.

Target street preaching

Alliance Councillor Jenna Maghie said she wants the restrictions to go further, and has previously called for bigger fines, but has accepted the new rules as “incremental gains”.

She claimed that greater restrictions are needed as street preachers have told her they plan to “openly flout” any new rules.

Another concerning aspect of the new measures is the requirement for anyone using amplification to “comply with any Code of Conduct issued by the Council, which may be amended from time to time”.

The Institute’s Northern Ireland Policy Officer James Kennedy commented: “This proposal appears to give City Council carte blanche to impose whatever restrictions it likes on street preachers in Belfast. It would be a wholly unjustifiable imposition on freedom of speech.”

Gospel freedom

Similar byelaw proposals were rejected at the end of last year, with DUP Alderman Dean McCullough saying his party could not support a 70 decibel limit “that renders amplification effectively useless”.

He told the City Council: “From the outset, these bye-laws were driven by a desire to target certain groups, primarily street preachers and the pro-life witnesses.”

One proposal was that street preachers should be required to get a permit, to which McCullough stated: “What utter folly on the part of some far-left councillors to believe that street preachers, members of the most persecuted religion on Earth, would ever seek or need their permission to preach.”

Denial of rights

In a letter to the Belfast News Letter last November, Revd Gordon Dane from the Free Presbyterian Church (FPC) wrote: “The bye-laws arose from attempts by some Belfast councillors to effectively ban open air preaching and literature distribution in the city centre. This could not be done because it would be a denial of rights.”

He stated: “There has been a tradition of open air preaching in Ulster towns and cities and it has normally been done with loud speaking equipment.

“There certainly needs to be sensitivity and courtesy but to effectively put an outright ban on loud speaking equipment is over the top.”

As the Convenor of the FPC’s government and morals committee, he explained: “They have extended the ban to buskers but this seems to be a cover for the restriction put on open air preaching and this has been the target of some councillors right from the start. If it is targeted at evangelical preachers it is discriminatory.”