Archive for February, 2014

PROTECTING WILDLIFE in Minerstown / Rossglass

Published
by
Cadogan Enright
on February 21, 2014
in 3. PRESS RELEASES AND NEWS, Ballykinler, BEACH BY-LAWS MINERSTOWN, Council, Killough and Coney Island, Tyrella/Minerstown and Wildlife/Trees/Nature
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Carraig na Ron - Seal Rock

Local farmers, residents and professional wildlife experts turn out to support wildlife on Minerstown Beach

GOOD NEWS FOR WILDLIFE!! For the last 6 years+ I have been trying to get bye-laws passed to protect shore-nesting birds and seal pups from disturbance during the breeding season. The DOE delayed us for years – but now our bye-laws will be going for consultation in the next few weeks.

WHAT CAN YOU DO TO MAKE THIS HAPPEN

  1. Send me your email address so I can make sure that you get a copy of the consultation document – it is vital that we get a lot of positive responses.  cadogan@enright.ie
  2. Take or print a few copies of this document for your friends as anybody who uses Rossglass or Minerstown beaches can submit an opinion, not just those of us living locally.

see slide show on killing and disturbance of wildlife here>  Minerstown wildlife killed (for internet)

Carraig na Rónta

Seals on the rocks at Minerstown – Carraig na Rónta

 

These bye-laws are the first in Northern Ireland by a Council specifically to protect wildlife. They are a precedent that can be used to protect wildlife in any other part of N.I.. This is why myself and others have campaigned for years to get this result.

 

 

 

 

Golden Plover nest Rossglass / Minerstown later squished by a quad

Golden Plover nest Rossglass / Minerstown later squished by a quad

Similarly there are only a very few patches of shingle along the coast where mechanised vehicles need to avoid squishing plover or other birds nests – these areas need our protection. Information boards are vital here.

Once most ordinary decent people are told why they have to keep their dogs on a lead near seal pups, or keep dogs 200 meters from newly pupped seals they make a point of doing so. Anyway we have 100 kilometres of coastline to let dogs run free!But these bye-laws also authorise public officials to take action where needed.

Down Coastal Rowing Club (Ardglass Branch)

Published
by
Cadogan Enright
on February 13, 2014
in 3. PRESS RELEASES AND NEWS and Ardglass
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Independent Councillor Cadogan Enright chaired the inaugural meeting of Down Coastal Rowing Club (Ardglass Branch) was held Wednesday night in the village at the Ardglass Development Association (ADA) drop-in centre in Bath Street. A steering committee was formed to fully set up the local group.

Local enthusiasts have formed a local Ardglass branch of the Down Coastal Rowing Club.Local enthusiasts formed the Ardglass branch of the Down Coastal Rowing Club (DCRC). The DCRC emerged from an initiative pioneered by the Strangford Lough and Lecale Partnership and the PSNI. The aim is to build eight 22-feet wooden St Ayle’s skiffs in local coastal communities and ultimately have them take part in regattas and events along the Lecale Coast and in Strangford Lough in a fun and on a competitive basis.

Cllr Enright represents Down Council on the Strangford Lough and Lecale partnership and said “St Ayle’s skiffs have a strong international following. Each one will be built by local enthusiasts and rowed by people in their communities. There is a great opportunity for a healthy inter-community rivalry which will no doubt be a feature of the main festivals in east Down in the summer time in the near future.”

The Ardglass branch is now seeking members to join up. All persons joining the Ardglass branch will also be required to join the Down Coastal Rowing Club (DCRC) overall organisation which will co-ordinate much of the developments etc. (Cost of membership fee is £5,)

If  you think you may have a useful set of skills in boat-building such as woodworking, painting etc, why not get involved? It is expected that each skiff takes up to 800 work hours to complete and a team is required to see this project through.

To express you interested initially, contact Mary McCargo, 028 44 841575, Cadogan Enright at 07590462329  or Jim Masson on07855545873.

Many hands make light work.

KILCLIEF FORMS RESIDENTS ASSOCIATION

Published
by
Cadogan Enright
on February 12, 2014
in 3. PRESS RELEASES AND NEWS, Ardglass and Kilclief and Ballyculter
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KIlclief Residents Committee R-L Eamonn Quinn, Maurice Denvir, Claire Hanna with Cllr Enright centre

KIlclief Residents Committee R-L Eamonn Quinn, Maurice Denvir, Claire Hanna with Cllr Enright centre

Councillor Cadogan Enright chaired the inaugural meeting of the Kilclief Residents Association (KRA) last Friday evening for the appointment of officers. Registration forms for the new association were completed and grant forms filled in.

It was decided to produce a leaflet seeking other potential committee members around the area and to circulate a list of priority issues that had been raised at the meeting to see if this could be improved by other residents ahead of another general meeting later in the year.

Initial concerns included a obtaining a 30-mile an hour zone for the village, a play-park for children, ensuring Kilclief beach had “EU bathing water status” and funding for summer schemes later this year.

Cllr Enright said, “New regulations for 30 mile and hour zones have now come into force and Kilclief clearly falls within these new regulations. I have made the application to Roads Service accordingly on behalf of the KRA.”

Local residents discussed various potential locations for a potential play park, and undertook to approach local landowners. It was noted that surrounding villages had all managed to get a play park of some kind, and given the number of young children in the village some facility of this kind was essential.

Kilclief residents passed a motion passed to write to the Ardglass Development Association pledging support for their campaign to get EU registration for Lecale beaches including Kilclief. This had the objective of achieving EU registration to ensure that NI Water can no longer legally discharge untreated sewerage in waters in our area, which will bring both social and economic advantages to our area, especially given the importance of the tourist trade locally.

CONEY ISLAND RESIDENTS PROTEST

Published
by
Cadogan Enright
on February 12, 2014
in 4. PRESS CUTTINGS, Ardglass, Climate Change/Flooding, Council, Health / Local Services, Housing, Killough and Coney Island, Supporting Minorities / Human Rights and Traffic/Rat Runs/Roads
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Coney Island residents write in protesting over lack of flood protection and support Cllr Cadogan Enrights complaints in this issue

scandalous letter response to Coney Island plea for flood help

Published
by
Cadogan Enright
on February 10, 2014
in 3. PRESS RELEASES AND NEWS, Ardglass, Climate Change/Flooding, Council and Killough and Coney Island
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COUNCIL INACTION EXPOSED

Debris around houses in Coney Island

Debris around houses in Coney Island after 3 successive tidal surges

Coney Island resident kevin lappin and cadogan enright during recent storms

Coney Island resident kevin lappin and cadogan enright during recent storms

I HAVE POSTED HERE BELOW A SCANDALOUS SERIES OF EMAILS WHERE COUNCIL ARE REFUSING TO PROVIDE ASSISTANCE TO CONEY ISLAND.

CLEARLY THE SDLP AS THE LARGEST PARTY IN COUNCIL COULD DO SOMETHING ABOUT THIS IF THEY WANTED TO.

CLICK TO SEE LETTER FROM LOCAL RESIDENTS HERE 

I will keep adding to this as the saga unfolds until they are embarrassed into doing something about this scandal.

———- Forwarded message ———-

From: Cadogan Enright <cadogan@enright.ie>
Date: Sun, Feb 9, 2014 at 11:53 PM
Subject: reworded notice of motion
ToJohn Dumigan, CEO of Council and to Maria McCarthy SDLP Chair of Council

Dear John and Maria

in the absence of a reply on this issue, I am therefore proposing a new wording for the Notice of Motion. I note that this is the seventh notice of motion since the last AGM from myself that council management have sought to suppress.

Amended wording reads;

“Council notes that province-wide agreements, arrangements and protocols reflected in the Councils emergency plan for dealing with floods and other emergencies currently prevent some villages being offered assistance if the Roads Service does not recognise the roads serving those villages as public roads. Council management have explained that they do not provide assistance either as they follow the ‘Lead Agency’ in emergencies of this kind.

For instance Roads Service is unable to provide flood protection to Coney Island during tidal surges, so Down Council would not either.

Council directs management to change these ‘province-wide agreements, arrangements and protocols‘ to ensure that all ratepayers can expect not to be excluded from Council assistance in emergency situations by the bureaucratic rules of other agencies”

I am copying other Councillors for information.

Councillor Cadogan Enright

———- Forwarded message ———-
From: Cadogan Enright <cadogan@enright.ie>
Date: Fri, Jan 17, 2014 at 1:46 PM
Subject: Re: Fw: notice of motion
To: John Dumigan, CEO of Council
Cc: Maria McCarthy Chair of Council and SDLP
John
Thank you for your response

Can you explain how we can protect areas like Coney Island if, as you suggest, we can only follow the lead of other Agencies?

Let me understand what you are saying;

1. If the Road Service refuses to support Coney Island because these 40 houses are on a private road (as it did in the recent storms on theFriday and the Sunday) we have to follow their lead

2. you are suggesting that Down District Council will work to support the Roads Service in preventing floods in other villages and refuse to support Coney Island

3. We know that the 40 houses are our ratepayers, and expect us to provide service to them in the same manner that we do to other areas. You are saying that they are incorrect in this expectation

I dont see how we have any choice but to run with my notice of motion in this regard. I am prepared to accept a rewording if it will help you, but we cannot abandon a community in our area  to floods because we are slavishly following an incorrect policy of another government agency

The problem is that your “province-wide agreements, arrangements and protocols” that you refer to below are wrong, and need to be amended.

Cllr Cadogan Enright

On Fri, Jan 17, 2014 at 10:01 JohnDumigan> wrote:

Cadogan

Your proposed Notice of Motion will, if adopted, by the Council, cause us to break province-wide agreements, arrangements and protocols.  The Council’s role in an emergency is to follow the advice/guidance of the Lead Agency.  Depending on the emergency the Lead Agency may be the DRD, Health Trust, Ambulance Service, Fire Brigade, Rivers Agency, etc or the Council.   To adopt your proposal would mean we would have a priority action that may well affect our ability to provide the support asked of us by the Lead Agency.  In the last flooding emergency the Lead Agency was the PSNI and they provided us with important information and advice on the areas of greatest risk and where we should focus our limited resources.

In an emergency we collaborate with others and collectively decide what needs done and who should do it.  Last week our role was to support the DRD in the distribution of sand bags.

The Council has no sand bags of its own, other than to protect its own property and its not our role to distribute sand bags to the public.  There is a province-wide protocol that sets out who does what regarding sand bags and we signed up to that.  To adopt your Notice of Motion would mean we wouldn’t be following the protocol.

Finally, I do not believe that the response to an emergency is a matter of the Council, it is an operational matter and for that reason and the other reasons set out above I will refer your comments to the Council’s Emergency Team.

John Dumigan
Clerk and Chief Executive

Committee Clerks
Down District Council
Downshire Civic Centre
Downshire Estate
Ardglass Road
Downpatrick
BT30 6RA

Date: 04/01/2014 18:55
Subject: notice of motion

Dear Sarah,

I would like to put a notice of motion before the next council meeting please

The wording is as follows

“That the Councils emergency plan for dealing with floods and other emergencies will be amended to deal with the protection of ratepayers in areas that other agencies are unable to provide assistance.

For instance Roads Service is unable to provide flood protection to Coney Island during tidal surges. It should therefore be the priority of the Council to ensure that these few areas be attended to first, before going to the assistance of other agencies.”

Thanks a lot and happy new year Sarah

Cadogan

Strangford Journalist speaks out on A and E

Published
by
Cadogan Enright
on February 7, 2014
in 4. PRESS CUTTINGS, Employment/Economics, Health / Local Services, Raholp and Saul and Strangford Village and Lough
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Marie Louise McCrory speaks for Strangford and for us all.

I collected A and E petitions in Strangford village all last week, getting the last of them from Fr McGrady at Stella Maris Church today.

Here are the views of one person who was in  Stella Maris Church

DOWNPATRICKS FUTURE DEPENDS ON SAUL ROAD DEVELOPMENT – sent to papers today – copy my points for your objection

Published
by
Cadogan Enright
on February 7, 2014
in 3. PRESS RELEASES AND NEWS, Downpatrick, Employment/Economics, Health / Local Services, Housing, Planning issues and illegal development and Raholp and Saul
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SAUL ROAD – PLANNERS MUST GET IT RIGHT

Sir,             (NOTE use reference R/2013/0544f to object when writing to Planning Office in Rathkelter House, Market St. DPK)

The huge new housing development proposed for the Saul Road in Downpatrick, is going to be the litmus test of the sincerity and professionalism of the Roads Service and Planning Service in Down District.

For years the Roads Service has been saying that any ring-road around Downpatrick must be ‘developer-led’. I.E. Paid for by developers of the land in question. This development parallels the route of the ‘Eastern Distributor Road’ shown in the development plan, and therefore must be built off that road, and not the Saul Road.

Planners put this ring road in the ‘Area Plan’ for Downpatrick. It links the Hospital to the Belfast Road by crossing the Ballyhornan, Saul and Strangford roads in a wide arc. It would dramatically reduce congestion in Downpatrick, and allow the Southern side of the town to be developed in line with the expansion envisaged in the Area Plan. The new upgraded Sewerage plant was constructed to accommodate up to 20,000 people with this in mind.

We were told that without this link road, development would be restricted on that side of the town.

But instead of following the Area Plan, this development proposes to discharge onto the already congested Saul Road, orientated to overlook and dominate Ardenlee. This development should be orientated away from Ardenlee and built along the new link road. When the new hospital was built, they were forced to deliver the bit of the ring-road off the Ardglass Road roundabout . This development must be one of the next links in the chain. Developers need to understand that this vision for Downpatrick serves their interests too.

The Roads Service and the Planning Service now have a chance to deliver what they have been talking about for years. If they fail, politicians must intervene. They should note that after the May elections Councillors will have the power to set planning policy, and will be able to insist that the Area Plan is delivered for the benefit of the whole town.

If planners fail Downpatrick on this one, we will be left with congestion, an inability to deliver potential growth and jobs locally and with the Hospital ‘marooned’ on the wrong side of town giving the bureaucrats up at the Ulster Hospital a further excuse to cut our local services.

Yours etc

Cllr Cadogan Enright

A SIMPLE WAY TO COLLECT PETITIONS FOR DOWN HOSPITAL A and E campaign

Published
by
Cadogan Enright
on February 4, 2014
in 3. PRESS RELEASES AND NEWS, Downpatrick and Health / Local Services
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Kitchen Stool Campaigning

Kitchen Stool Campaigning

Kitchen Stool Campaigning

Kitchen stools with posters on and clip-boards on top – works great – I got hundreds of signatures with them in Downpatrick Leisure Centre. AND you can put them in the back of a car and go to the next meeting or shop or Church. On a sports field you can lean on them and the legs go into the ground and they don’t blow over.