WHO ARE WE?
The South Down and Armagh Green Party was re-named in October 2009 when the “Review of Public Administration” decided to merge our two local council areas in South Down into one Local Authority area. Our local party group covers the South Down MLA constituency, plus bits of neighbouring MLA constituencies that fall into our new local government area. The merger process will be concluded with the elections in June 2011 to the new council. Meanwhile the two local councils are working towards the merger.
DOWN District Council stretches from Strangford Lough in the East to Sliebh Croobh in the West to the Mourne Mountains in the South, one of the most beautiful and environmentally sensitive areas in Ireland and the World.
Newry and Mourne District Council stretches from The Mournes, via Newry and South Armagh, past Sliebh Gullion and Co.Louth to the boarders of Co. Monaghan. We feel that these boundaries are strange in that we have a local government area over 100 miles long that is less than 10 miles wide in parts.
A part of Banbridge Council has also been added to restore the hitherland of Castlewellan back into South Down – we campaigned for this change as it will place the whole of the new National Park in the new local autority. This will be an important democratic check for local people over the governance of the National Park.
There is no Green Party in the Strangford MLA constituency as this area is devided for practical and geographical reasons between North Down/Ards and South Down/Down District.
Thus, North of us are the North Down / Ards Greens who have Brian Wilson MLA, the first ever Green Party MLA in the Stormont Assembly Elected 2007.
“Only since Green Party councillors and MLA’s started to get elected in county Down has the environment made it onto the radar of other local political parties – however where other local politicians do the green talking it is the Green Party that is taking real action for the protection of our fragile environment and the social justice of local people in this area.” – Green Party Cllr Cadogan Enright, Downpatrick.
At our AGM in Castlewellan in October 2009 it was decided to use this website for the renamed South Down and Armagh Green Party, as it was the best developed website we had at the time. We have bought the ” “southdowngreens.com ” domain name, but it will take time for the site to cover the whole area and we expect to use both “downgreens.com” and southdowngreens.com for some time.
See the Map of Local Issues which highlights the locations relevant to some of the stories on this web site. You can move around the map using the arrow icons, or by clicking on the map and dragging with your mouse. To see more details on any of the locations, click on the marker. The Map of Local Issues can be viewed by clicking here.
