Tom Elliott has stepped down as leader of the Ulster Unionist Party

An Ulster Unionist Assembly Member is to try and introduce a legal ban on naming publicly funded property after convicted terrorists.

UUP justice spokesperson Tom Elliott has said he will bring a Private Members Bill to the Assembly after nationalists in Newry and Mourne Council controversially voted to retain the name of a children’s play park dedicated to an IRA hunger striker.

IRA gunman McCreesh was linked to a string of atrocities, including the sectarian massacre of 10 workmen at Kingsmills in 1976.

Mr Elliott said the decision to seek a ban came following the decision to keep the name of McCreesh Park in Newry’s Patrick Street, which he described as “nothing further than a glorification of criminal activity and a deterioration in community relations”.

The Fermanagh and South Tyrone MLA said: “We need to create a more appropriate legal framework to ensure that this cannot be allowed to continue.

“I believe the proposals I will be bringing forward would have the effect of improving community relations as well as increasing the sensitivity which is shown to victims and survivors of terrorism who are too often neglected.”

Belfast Telegraph