Village green row hits council tourism plans

Village green row hits council tourism plans

5 March 2014

A COMMUNITY group and Down Council are at loggerheads over how an important public space in Strangford should be developed.

Down Council wants to erect a large piece of public art at the Lower Green as part of a major tourism project, while the Strangford Community Association has its own plans for the area.

Council officials are proposing the public art, and what have been described as ‘other extensive works’, should be located at the Lower Green as part of the Mourne Coastal project.

However, the community group wants the area retained for the use of local people and tourists, with unofficial car parking banned and the area landscaped with new picnic tables and benches. Village officials also want an existing hard surface retained to allow people to launch boats and take them out of the water, with a gravel beach for children also suggested.

The current situation is further compounded by the fact that Down Council is to seek funding for its proposal from the Down Rural Area Partnership (DRAP), the very body which has already financed Strangford’s village plan which is at odds with the local authority’s proposal for the Lower Green.

Talks were held between community group representatives and a senior Down Council tourism official last week in a bid to reach a compromise on the way forward. A further meeting was suggested, but hours later community officials were informed the local authority has no plans to meet with them.

The rebuff has angered the community group which has called for urgent talks between both parties in a bid to reach agreement on the way forward.

Community association chairman, Diarmuid Riordan, claimed Down Council officials are aware that the Strangford group received substantial funding from DRAP to consult with residents and develop an “integrated village plan” to reflect what local people would like to see in all areas of village life.

“This included having the village green as a shared space for all the community and tourists alike. Down Council, however, has decided to press ahead with its own plans and intends to approach DRAP to fund its plans, in defiance of the wishes of local people,” claimed Mr. Riordan.

He added: “We demand a meeting with senior council management on this issue and will resist any proposal inimical to the best interests of the lower green or the village as a whole.”

Community Association treasurer, Gary Laverty, confirmed the group is writing to DRAP to urge it not to release funds for the Strangford part of the Mournes Coastal scheme arguing “the basic requirement under the DRAP scheme for community consultation has not been met.”

Councillor Cadogan Enright, who arranged the initial meeting between both parties last week, said the village slipway at lower green is almost the only public one left on the Down District side of Strangford Lough, but has been turned into an unofficial car park, even though such a facility already exists beside the ferry terminal.

He added: “Local people and tourists alike need somewhere to launch their boats. This is part of the fabric of the village and not everyone is in a yacht club. We have only just finished fighting off an attempt to fence off part of the quay in Strangford and now we are faced with a land-grab on a community space.

“I was shocked when informed last Friday that council officials will not meet Strangford’s community representatives to work out a compromise on this issue. This meeting must happen.”