BY CONOR SHARKEY

SINN Fein councillor Ivan Barr has denied he snubbed his party by backing a decision to grant a loyalist flute band access to council land.

Mr Barr came under fire from within his party after voting to allow Castlederg Young Loyalists Flute Band use of the council owned Castle Site for a fireworks display at the weekend.

Despite strong opposition by his party to the band's application, Mr Barr's vote proved to be crucial in permission being granted to the Loyalist and

The maverick decision by the veteran councillor outraged Castlederg Sinn Fein representative Charlie McHugh, who later accused Mr Barr of showing disregard for his party colleagues.

Mr Barr said he had backed the application because not to would have contravened equality legislation and possibly left Strabane District Council open to legal proceedings.

This claim was refuted by Mr McHugh who said by giving the application the go ahead, Mr Barr had not equated fair play to the nationalist community of Castlederg.

And the party rift appeared to be far from resolved this week, with local Sinn Fein leader Gerard Foley claiming Mr Barr still had questions to answer.

Mr Foley said: "I would agree with councillor McHugh when he says that councillor Barr snubbed the party.

"The application was discussed at a Sinn Fein meeting prior to the council meeting. On issues like this, councillors are told how it should go and if someone decides to go against that, then they will have questions to answer.

"Councillor Barr knows the structure and if he is told to vote one way, then he should be prepared to vote that way.

"Our Castlederg councillors are always on the front line when it comes to parading and they need our full support on issues like this," he said.

With regards to how he tends, as party head, to deal with not receiving the full backing of his colleagues, Mr Foley said: "If you haven't got the backing of your party, then you go to someone higher up to discuss that.

"I haven't spoken to Pat Doherty about it, but that doesn't mean it is done and dusted as far as I am concerned. There are still questions to be answered by Mr Barr and we will have to sit down and discuss it in the near future."

Rubbishing the accusation that he snubbed his colleagues, Mr Barr said he simply did what he believed was right.

"As far as I am concerned, I did not snub the party or go against policy. There was a group meeting prior to the council meeting to discuss our attitude to the opinion of the council legal advisor.

"It was then agreed that councillors would have a free vote on the issue and I made it perfectly clear that I would not go against legal opinion.

"A number of district councils have found themselves the subject of judicial reviews in recent times, and in cases where they have been found guilty of discrimination, councillors have been subjected to heavy financial penalties. I wasn't prepared to be accused of discrimination by anyone."

Denying he turned his back on his colleagues, Mr Barr added: "How can anyone see this as a snub? I could simply have got up and walked out of the council meeting.

"But by doing that, I wouldn't have been true to myself and to abstain would have been moral cowardice. I believe I was well within party guidelines on this," he said.

'Councillor Barr knows the structure and if he is told to vote one way, then he should be prepared to vote that way' - Chairman Gerard Foley, SF