Council not responsible for part of local beach

SIR, — Following allegations on Twitter on Monday that there was widespread littering on the beach in Newcastle between the Golf Club and the Slieve Donard Hotel, I asked Down Council officers to inspect the area.

Following their inspection, officers reported that while there was some litter in the area, there was no evidence that rubbish had been dumped there.

Down Council is responsible for the cleanliness of the Crown Estate areas of our coastline, however, the area of beach in front of the Slieve Donard Hotel and the Golf Club is not Crown Estate.

This means that it is the responsibility of the hotel to clean this part of the beach. It is a very small area, only the width of a road.

It is important that before people, in particular elected representatives, use social media or any other medium, to broadcast their complaints, they really need to check the facts first, particularly when it comes to ownership and responsibility.

While this complaint was picked up by the BBC, I was able to explain the situation to them. This litter was confined to a small area of beach not cared for by Down Council and bore no resemblance to the widespread littering that was reported last weekend in Bangor.

Indeed, I would like to pay tribute to our council staff who have been doing sterling work over this holiday weekend by keeping our towns clean and litter free.

The Slieve Donard will now be advised of the need to remove the litter from this area of the beach.

Yours etc.,

CLLR. CARMEL O’BOYLE,

Newcastle.