£5m sewage plant is ‘not good enough’

£5m sewage plant is ‘not good enough’

10 April 2013

VILLAGES and hamlets along the Lecale coastline will not be connected into a major new £5m sewage treatment works in Ardglass, it has been revealed.

The plant, which will be constructed at Ardtole, will only cater for Ardglass and the waste produced by the fishing industry. The small communities of Ballyhornan, Bishopscourt, Chapeltown, Coney Island and Killough will not be linked to the plant much to the anger of local residents.

Northern Ireland Water (NIW) says the plant will not have the capacity to deal with the waste from the five villages but said it is being constructed to allow the villages to be connected in the future.

However, residents and a local councillor have claimed NIW is “missing a trick” and have called for NIW to take advantage of the construction of the Ardtole plant to link all the villages into a proper sewage system.

They want the Lecale coastline to be treated in the same way as communities on the north Down coast which have all been connected into a major new sewerage system after years of problems.

Ballyhornan resident, Barry Mervyn, said the Lecale communities expect the same level of environmental protection as north Down.

“NIW is constructing a new wastewater preliminary screening plant at the bottom of Killard Drive in Ballyhornan and the solid waste will then be trucked to landfill,” he explained.

“This is only masking the problem, papering over the cracks. Raw sewage is still effectively flowing into our waters and the proposal to pump waste to the Ardglass plant appears to have slipped off NIW’s radar,” he added.

Coney Island resident, Declan Clarke, agreed that the coastal communities should be connected to the new sewage plant now, not in years to come.

“For years now when it rains our sewerage system overflows onto the Coney Island Road,” he said. “The Coney Island system should be added to the Ardglass scheme. Why are we not getting the same treatment as north Down.”

Down councillor Cadogan Enright, welcomed the new treatment plant but said it looks “feeble” when compared to the comprehensive scheme introduced in north Down.

“Our area is far more dependant on the tourism industry than north Down but we are left with a slew of Lecale towns and villages with no proper treatment works. This scheme can only be descried as the short end of the stick,” he said.

“Local people have been expecting the waste from their villages to be piped to the new sewerage facility for some years but this will not now be the case.

“We need to make our dissatisfaction clear and demand to know when the other areas are to be covered,” he said.

The councillor is urging people to attend a public consultation meeting with Northern Ireland Water officials in Ardglass Golf Club on Friday at 11am to convey to them their views on the proposal.

“I am representing residents from Coney Island and the Ballyhornan Task Force at the meeting and I would urge people from other villages to come along as well.” said Mr. Enright.