Achievements

This web-site covers my work as a Councillor between 2006 and 2014 – you can follow my current work at my Facebook Page and my Facebook Profile. As of March 2019, I started to test automatically updating this website with current Facebook posts on this web-sites home-page here.  

This site shows some of my my constituency work between 2006 and 2014 (click here to see) . This website also covers several successful campaigns that ran over several years to reach success.

I summarise a few of these for you here, with links to pages that give more details. Several of my campaigns ended up in the High Court before they were concluded.  If you can contribute to the cost of legal advice, publicity or on-going logistical cost of these campaigns and other – Click Here;

 

WINNING a £4 MILLION BATTLE OVER RATES

Between 2009 and 2012 I argued that Down District Council had accumulated about £4 million too much in its cash reserves and was raising rates unnecessarily.  The reserves peaked at £10.5 million in April 2010 forcing me to vote against adopting the Councils annual accounts and was beaten 22 to 1 on the subject. I raised the issues involved with the external auditor, and had the councils own internal audit committee vote time for our own internal auditor to investigate the matter – it was confirmed that we could have reserves as low as £1.7 million if we wanted, and that our reserves were the highest of any council outside Belfast and way ahead of neighbouring councils.

In 2012 my position was vindicated and Down Council voted to reduce reserves to stave off big rates increases for a period of 4 years.  See link

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CAMPAIGN TO GET LECALE’s BEACHES RECOGNISED UNDER THE EU BATHING WATERS DIRECTIVE   

There are a series of documents linked to the page below that you will find useful in getting your beach nominated as an ‘EU Bathing Water’. I have created this information-resource base to help local community associations in villages around Lecale get their local beaches recognised as ‘EU Bathing Waters’. These villages include

  1. Strangford (Strangford Community Association) Kilclief Beach
  2. Kilclief (Kilclief Residents Association and residents along Killard) Kilclief Beach and Killard Beach
  3. Ballyhornan (Ballyhornan Community Development Association) Ballyhornan Beach
  4. Ardglass (Ardglass Development Association and residents from nearby Chapeltown) Ardglass Spa, Ardglass Beach and Our Ladys  Well
  5. Coney Island (Coney Island Residents Association) Coney Island Beach
  6. The Lecale Conservation Society (amongst its wide variety of actions – maintains and protects Minerstown Beach)
  7. Killough Residents Associations (inc. Fishermans Row, Seaview/Westpoint and Church View)  Killough Beach and St. Helena’s Beach

We are all very grateful to the Ardglass Development Association who have fundraised several hundred pounds to get this project up and running.

OBJECTIVES – Main objectives to this campaign

  1. To improve the tourist potential of our villages and all of Lecale
  2. To bring legal pressure on NIWater to end the discharge of sewerage on or near our beaches.
  3. To have a Sewerage Systems similar to that in North Down as was originally proposed for Ardtole in Ardglass back in 2007. This project was downgraded in 2013 partly because none of our local beaches were recognised as ‘EU Bathing Waters’. We aim to return to the original plan of having all sewerage from local villages pumped to Ardtole for the same top-class treatment as in North Down
  4. To create a safe bathing environment for ourselves and our children.

Shared Information Base

(if you find other relevant info email cadogan@enright.ie to include it below)

I have inserted key pieces of information below to support the separate campaigns running on each of our local beaches;

  1. Why were our beaches not successful in the 2011 NIEA consultation? 

    1. Firstly because both Down Council and the NIEA failed to nominate Kilclief, Killard, Chapeltown, and beaches around Ardglass and Killough
    2. Secondly the NIEA did nominate Rossglass, Minerstown and Ballyhornan but claimed that there was insufficient evidence of use to support the designation.   (see 2011  list of nominated beaches and clearly incorrect stats for these 3 nominated beaches HERE)
  2. What are the rules for nominating a beach?

    1. We don’t need the NIEA or Council to do this for us, we can do it ourselves. The most important aspect is proving traditional and ongoing use – hence our use of Facebook to collect evidence in each local village for every beach
    2. I have captured the rules for nominating your beach as a ‘candidate beach’ HERE  and HERE
    3. The next opportunity to have our beaches nominated is now approaching – we need to apply.
  3. Why does Down Council have to help us?

    1. Because I got cross-party support for my motion to provide council help in having our beaches nominated as ‘EU Bathing Waters’
    2. The details of the motion and debate are HERE. As of July 2014 Council Management have done nothing – so local communities will have to ‘hold Council’s hand’ and help them make the right moves, as pro-active environmental campaigning is not a strong point in Down Council.
  4. Who do we approach, and how does it work?

    1. See HERE for a short summary document about how the process works
  5. What is the latest information we have from the Department?

    1. see HERE for the most useful of the ‘Freedom of Information’ replies I received.
  6. What sort of questions did you ask the Department?

    1. It took a while to discover from NI Water that their down-grade of the Ardglass Sewerage Project was partly triggered by the NIEA’s failure to identify any ‘Bathing Waters’ in Lecale – despite our villages and beaches being one of the North’s best Tourist attractions. See HERE for email chain trying to ask all the relevant questions to the NIEA;
  7. HERE is the full 2011 NIEA consultation document that identified ALL beaches on the ‘Gold Coast’ as ‘bathing waters’ but failed to to identify any of our beaches except Tyrella

  8. Compare the GOLD COAST with the LECALE COAST for sewerage treatment HERE

 


STOPPING PROPOSED BADGER CULL IN CO. DOWN, N.IRELAND AND REPUBLIC

Badger  I have successfully campaigned with local environmentalists opposed to a proposed Badger Cull in Co.Down for several years – it was seen as a prelude to a wider cull in N.I.. It was based on the discredited notion that badgers spread T.B amongst cattle.
While this campaign was ongoing, we successfully extended the campaign south of the boarder, and managed to stop the extension of the cull in the 26 counties of Ireland in its tracks by convincing the Minister for the Environment of the illegality and financial wastfulness of giving in to the ‘badger cull lobby’ that had made so much money from this policy in the Republic.  Link to Badger Cull campaign.


 

LEADER OF CAMPAIGN TO STOP INDEPENDENT ENVIRONMENT AGENCY (EPA) CHARGED

A key player in preventing N.Ireland getting an Independent Environmental Agency was successfully prosecuted after 3 years of campaigning by Cllr Cadogan Enright. Important precedent in Environmental Enforcement


SCHOOL BUSES REFUSED FOR IRISH-SPEAKING CHILDREN

Irish Speaking Children only children to be denied school bus

Irish Speaking Children in Downpatrick and elsewhere in NI had been refused the same form of transport to their school (Coláiste Feirste in Belfast) that every other regional school in Belfast was provided with and likewise refused its own dedicated transport network covering County Down, which every other regional college in Belfast had too.
After more that 5 years of campaigning, this case was finally won at the end of 2011. CLICK HERE FOR DETAILS .


 

 


ENERGY


(Download the document here) This policy document as co-authored by Down District councillor Cadogan Enright with Eamon Ryan TD, Minister for Energy, Communications and Natural Resources, Republic of Ireland. Long Version


 


EAST DOWN AREA OF OUSTANDING NATURAL BEAUTY CAMPAIGN

Cadogan With Minister Poots at Tyrella

I  opposed serious errors in AONB designations on the East Down coast from the Department of the Environment, and initiated a vigourous campaign by local people that was ultimately successful. These serious anomalies inclided the revocation of AONB status for Tyrella’s blue flag beach and Miners town’s wildlife beach. Astonishing they were proposing that the car park at ASDA and McDonalds take-away in Downpatrick were proposed to be inserted into the AONB. This made no sense and inspired a vigourous campaign. see link here


 

SUBMISSION TO MOURNE NATIONAL PARK WORKING PARTY

I worked with my predecessor Bill Corry and others on a successful submission on the proposed Mourne National Park to the Mourne National Park Working Party.  Key recommendations in our porposal on the boundaries to the park were accepted with the assistance of a letter of support I had received from the Minister of the Environment in the Republic.
I feel the jobs potential of establishing Northern Ireland’s first National Park centered on the Mournes and Carlingford Lough cannot be over-estimated when we see what happened in Killarney, The Lake District and elsewhere. A National Park will demonstrate commitment to good environmental management for the region but must be introduced in a manner that will protect or enhance the opportunities of local people and promote rural development. Download the  Submission on the National Park.


DOWN DISTRICT POLICY ON SUSTAINABILITY AND THE LAW

Sustainability
Submission by Councillor Cadogan Enright to the Down District Council’s Audit Committee and Corporate Plan prior to the 2009 DDC AGM regarding sustainability and the law in the Down District. This route eventually forced the council to adopt a ‘Sustainable Development Plan’. Up until this point, council management had maintained that there was no legal duty to prepare such a plan. audit-committee-and-corporate-plan-re-sustainability-and-the-law