Archive for the '1. GREEN PRESS RELEASES / LATEST NEWS' Category

GREENS APPLAUD U-TURN BY AGRICULTURE MINISTER GILDERNEW

Published
by
Cadogan Enright
on September 4, 2010
in 1. GREEN PRESS RELEASES / LATEST NEWS, Barbara Haig, Cadogan Enright and Wildlife/Trees/Nature
. 0 Comments

CAMPAIGNING AGAINST A BADGER CULL, originally uploaded by downgreenparty.

Cllr Cadogan Enright of the South Down Green Party has welcomed the news that Agriculture Minister Michelle Gildernew has decided not to proceed with a badger cull in County Down. The Green Party and many environmental organisations have been supported by prominent local farmers in disputing the advice being given to the Minister that a badger cull would do anything to influence bovine TB in cattle.
Cadogan Enright said “The Minister has confirmed last week that the proposed study on 350 farms in County Down into the causes of the spread of TB will not involve any intervention with the Badger population. The incidence of TB in cattle in Northern Ireland has shown a steady decrease in recent years and if we follow the practice in Scotland we could find ourselves declared TB free within a few years by simply following the sort of common-sense biological controls on farms recommended by the Northern Ireland Audit Office. In their detailed study on TB in cattle in N. Ireland last year the Audit Office found that the main causes are related to poor animal management and movement control – not wildlife!. Competent local farmers like UUP MLA John McAlister have agreed with us on this matter. John put questions to the Minister on our behalf.”
“To be fair to the Minister, she was already beginning to question the need for a cull even before the report in February of this year by the Department of Infectious Disease Epidemiology, Imperial College London and Institute of Zoology London, has found that Badger Culling is not an effective way of combating T.B. ”, Said Stephen Agnew, spokesperson for North Down Greens..
Strangford Green Party activist Barbara Haig said “Clearly the finding by the High Court in Wales last month that the proposed badger cull in Wales was illegal under multiple legal headings has finally put a line under the protected status of the Badger in the UK – the Welsh First Minister was even admonished for wasting tax payers money in appealing the earlier decision by the lower courts to stop the badger cull.”
“The multi-year contract and license to cull badgers in the Republic of Ireland is coming up for review in March, and I believe that the Green Party Ministers currently in power in the South will now have sufficient evidence to stop culling in the Republic. The Green Party locally feels it should commend local UUP leader Councillor Burgess (also a farmer) as well as MLA John McAlister for ‘sticking with the science’ and abjuring the knee-jerk reaction of DUP spokespersons on this issue who were not even involved in farming”. Concluded Green Party Cllr Cadogan Enright

GREENS WELCOME REPAIRS ON RAILWAY BRIDGE

Published
by
Cadogan Enright
on September 3, 2010
in 1. GREEN PRESS RELEASES / LATEST NEWS, Ballynahinch/Spa, Cadogan Enright, Crossgar, Mark McCormick and Traffic/Rat Runs/Roads
. 0 Comments

Mark McCormick and Cllr Enright at railway bridge, originally uploaded by downgreenparty.

Down Green Party Councillor Cadogan Enright has welcomed the news that Roads Service has undertaken maintenance work on the stone-built railway bridge on the road to Crossgar out of Ballynahinch.

Local Green Party coordinator Mark McCormick said, “Pedestrians approaching the bridge from the Ballynahinch side found find that the pathway opened up into a sudden 14ft drop owing to the failure to upkeep the parapet. The pathway on the Crossgar side also led to an 8ft drop where the parapet has been side-swiped by an articulated lorry and this area was used for drinking.”

“I contacted the Roads Service and demanded immediate repairs as someone could easily have been killed or seriously injured. I have since received news that work has been undertaken to improve the state for the bridge and fix the existing damage. I welcome this announcement and thank the persons responsible for their work”, said Mr McCormick.

Cllr Enright commended Mark McCormick for following up on this issue over the last few months and thanked local Green Party member Kenneth Martin for highlighting the situation.

“It is vital that we conserve our railway heritage as all over Ireland and Britain old railways are being revived and restored. The Green Party in Government in the Republic of Ireland has played a part in reactivating the Cork to Cobh line, Limerick to Ennis and Galway lines, the Dublin to Naas line and appears to have succeeded in keeping the west coast interconnector from Cork all the way up to Sligo with a feasibility study to connect Donegal town to Derry.

“If we preserve the railway infrastructure in County Down we keep open the possibility of our own railways being reopened in the future” concluded Cllr Enright.

GREEN PARTY CONDEMNS SINN FEIN MINISTER FOR REFUSING SCHOOL BUSES FOR IRISH SPEAKING CHILDREN

Published
by
Cadogan Enright
on September 3, 2010
in 1. GREEN PRESS RELEASES / LATEST NEWS, Cadogan Enright, Downpatrick, Schools and Supporting Minorities / Human Rights
. 0 Comments

Cllr Enright called on Minister Ruane to confirm or deny that the first dedicated bus in NI for the Irish Speaking secondary sector will be available to Irish Speaking children in Downpatrick from the 1st September.
The Education Minister has rejected an appeal from Downpatrick parents to fund a bus service for chidren hoping to attend an Irish language secondary school in Belfast.
‘This leaves children as young as 11 travelling two hours each way to Belfast and back again each day, yet the official target for a school journey in Northern Ireland is one hour’ explained Cllr Enright.
Over the last 4 years the Green Party has been part of a cross-party and cross-community group attempting to ensure that children attending Irish speaking secondary school did not continue to be deprived of school transport to and from Belfast and that they had the same facilities as all other regional colleges in Belfast like Lagan, Methody and Victoria have a dedicated network of buses, as do many other schools in Down District. These buses are provided over and above normal Translink services that are also accessed with a bus pass.
Green Party Cllr Cadogan Enright said “Sinn Fein Minister Caitriona Ruane has not been particularly helpful in this matter given that the campaign had the unequivocal support of the NI Human Rights Commission, The Children’s Commissioner and many members of her own party. She had ample opportunity to over-rule her back-ward looking civil servants who have found it hard to adjust to the idea that Irish Medium secondary education is entitled to the same support as the Integrated sector”.
Cadogan Enright pointed out that “There are approximately 2030 dedicated buses delivering children to and from school every day in the English language State, Catholic and Integrated sectors. These are mostly delivering children to distant schools that are not necessarily the nearest in their sector. This would never be allowed in England and Wales. However not one bus has ever been provided to the Irish Medium sector, despite the fact that children are seeking to travel to their nearest school. It was only last year that the department were forced through legal action to recognize the existence of Irish Medium Education in the transport regulations – 11 years after the legal requirement was placed upon them”.
“It is high-time for the Minister to concede that her civil servants have failed to encourage and facilitate Irish Medium education at secondary level as required under the 1998 British-Irish agreement in a similar manner to Integrated education, that no meetings ever took place to organize this legal duty with Education Boards and with Translink. It is high time the Minister followed the advice of the NI Human Rights Commissioner and sorted this out” Concluded Green Party Cllr Cadogan Enright.

GREENS CALL FOR CROSSROADS OBSTRUCTION TO BE REMOVED

Published
by
Cadogan Enright
on September 3, 2010
in 1. GREEN PRESS RELEASES / LATEST NEWS, Dunmore and Traffic/Rat Runs/Roads
. 0 Comments

Cllr Enright and John Hardy at Dunmore crossroads, originally uploaded by downgreenparty.

The Green Party has called for a remaining wall which has been causing obstruction at the Dunmore Road and Magherahamlet Road crossroads to be removed to avoid any further accidents, following a serious crash in the past week.

Cllr Enright explained, “We had previously campaigned with planning enforcement to have a derelict building on the site which had been causing traffic problems to be removed, but it seems that while the rest of the house was demolished, a significant section of wall remains and this continues to block the sightlines of road users approaching the crossroads from the Spa direction.

Local Green Party coordinator Mark McCormick said “It took over 18 months of pressure from the Green Party for the original ruin to be demolished, and it had been there for 10 years. We hope it wont take the same amount of time to have the wall demolished as it is a serious hazard.

“The remaining bit of wall caused disruption to the recent successful sheep dog trials as it was unsafe for large numbers of vehicles to be emerging from the crossroads and it was only due to the utmost vigilance from the organisers and road users that accidents were avoided. However, in the past few days there has been a serious accident between two lorries and this highlights the need for action to be taken straight away.”

Cllr Enright concluded “I will be pursuing this matter with the Planning Service and with Roads Service to ensure it is taken care of with urgency. In the mean time I ask road users to continue to use caution at the crossroads.”

The following photos show the scene of the recent crash at the crossroads:

 

dunmore crash2

dunmore crash1

FACEBOOK CAMPAIGN FOR DOWNE COMMUNITY HEALTH COMMITTEE

Published
by
John Hardy
on August 27, 2010
in 1. GREEN PRESS RELEASES / LATEST NEWS, Cadogan Enright, Health / Local Services and Mark McCormick
. 0 Comments

Mark McCormick and Cllr Enright

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cllr Enright updated the Downe Community Health Committee (DCHC) on the Facebook campaign launched and maintained by Barry Magee and Mark McCormick, to which over 1800 mostly younger people have signed.

DCHC leaders Eamonn McGrady and Dick Shannon commented at the meeting that this was a vital new development and they needed the skills of the younger generation to reach the thousands of people in the District who now used ‘new media’.

Cllr Enright was then asked to approach Barry and Mark to see if they would agree to have their Facebook campaign become the official online campaign of the DCHC, to which they agreed.

To join the Facebook campaign click here:

Save Downe Hospital’s 24-hour Accident & Emergency (A&E) Services

TO SEE MORE ON OUR HOSPITAL CAMPAIGN CLICK HERE

CALL FOR MARKET STREET TO OPEN IMMEDIATELY

Published
by
Cadogan Enright
on August 26, 2010
in 1. GREEN PRESS RELEASES / LATEST NEWS, Cadogan Enright, Council, Downpatrick and Employment/Economics
. 0 Comments

Cllr Enright with Market St shop owners, originally uploaded by downgreenparty.

Cllr Cadogan Enright put a motion before council on Monday Night and supported calls from the Downpatrick Business Forum for Market Street to open for two way traffic with immediate effect. He said that Traders were devastated by the announcement by Down District Council’s economic and cultural development director Sharon O’Connor that the resumption of normal trading and traffic patterns would not happen at the end of July, but has been postponed to the 13th September.

Green Party Councillor Cadogan Enright said, “If you go up to Royal Avenue in Belfast you will see their Street improvement scheme being carried out on Sundays. All this week there was only one building worker on Market Street doing some pavement work at the Ulster Bank corner with Irish Street. Traffic does not need to be diverted for this sort of work. All the major work has long-since finished and there is only a bit of tidying up to do”.

Business Forum chairman Patrick Cassidy said that “business is severely impaired at the moment with a huge reduction in footfall on Market Street. There can be no excuse for putting back the date of re-opening of the Street”.

Business Forum secretary Tracy Quail said this has been going on too long, and the remaining work could easily be carried out on a single Sunday, the Street should open forthwith.”

In putting a motion before Council at the behest of Traders, Cllr Enright sought council logistical support in making a claim for rates relief to the Regional Rates Authority. No Trader has ever succeeded in making a claim under this scheme which is supposed to give up to a years rates rebate in the event of an uninsurable risk not arising from normal competition damaging trade. Cllr Enright said “The Hardship Relief Scheme in NI has become moribund and ineffective as the Regional Rates Authority is interpreting ‘normal business risk’ so broadly as to make any claim under its provisions impossible. The council must write to the Minster to make the interpretation of the rules more realistic”

“I am also campaigning for the immediate resumption of two way traffic and normal working, as this is the peak trading period for Market Street Traders”. The partial closure of Market Street has been added to by works in Knocknashinna, Saul Street and elsewhere around the town and the combined effect is devastating” Concluded Cadogan Enright

Green Party leaflet for local traders in Market Street Click this DOC to view the leaflet produced by Cllr Enright which gives an update on the Market Street campaign

DOWNPATRICK CUT-OFF AND UNDERWATER

Published
by
Cadogan Enright
on August 26, 2010
in 1. GREEN PRESS RELEASES / LATEST NEWS, Cadogan Enright, Council, Downpatrick and Traffic/Rat Runs/Roads
. 0 Comments

Cadogan Enright, originally uploaded by downgreenparty.

Downpatrick and Lecale Councillor Cadogan Enright attended the launch of the new town Master plan last week. Cllr Cadogan Enright said “There are some excellent points in the plan like the acceptance that “in-town” shopping needs to be developed around the bus-station, and that the proposed ring-road needs to go around the east and the south of the town. I have campaigned for these points in the past to ensure the sustainable development of the town going forward. It is essential that our infrastructure is developed to allow us to be one of the towns where public sector jobs can be outsourced. We have been ruled out as not meeting the criteria for decentralisation of jobs as we stand”.

The Downpatrick Green Party councillor continued, “However there are some really awful bloopers in the plan that you would have expected the DSD to have picked up on, especially when local people, including myself, had pointed them out in the consultation process.”

“The plan envisages building on half the flood-plain and flooding the other half and reclaiming a large part of Downpatrick Marsh for sports fields. This will potentially expose the town to great danger in the future. Downpatrick is already the lowest-lying town in Ireland with the centre almost half a meter below sea-level. Removing the flood-plain is a really bad idea, and professional planners should know better”, said councillor Enright.

Councillor Enright pointed out that there were issues with transport links too. “It is alarming to say the least that the A25/B8 to Newry is not shown in the plan as a primary link for the future. Without the A25/B8 and the direct buses to Dublin Airport noted we relegate ourselves to a suburb of Lisburn/Belfast rather than an important regional centre in Ireland as a whole. Instead the plan shows the dreadful B177 to Lisburn as one of our main two strategic corridors. Clearly our 3 main roads are A24, A7 and the A25/B8. The overall diagram on page seven looks like one written by someone from Belfast unaware of the districts links with Newry and Mourne and unfamiliar with the fact that the A25/B8 carries a lot of our private sector traffic and compares with the A7 and Ballynahinch Road (B24) for public sector traffic.”

“The Town seems to be in the process of losing its direct bus connections to Dublin and Dublin Airport with hardly a comment. These have one of the greatest concentrations of Tourist traffic in Western Europe. The seven million tourists who arrive at these locations annually are exactly the sort of Tourist that would be drawn to “St Patrick”, “The Mountains of Mourne” or any of our outdoor attractions”, said Cllr Enright.

Cllr Enright pointed out a number of other smaller errors or omissions too. “Examples include;
1. The railway society secured lottery funding for the new link to the St Patrick’s centre, and this is shown in the Master Plan – but the council has inexplicably gone cold on this idea since the SDLP voted against it and the Railway society was forced to return the money to the National Lottery. If we show the link, then we need to support the Railway society in achieving it.
2. Northern Ireland Water seems determined to put their new sewerage pumping station in the middle od the car-park at the back of the post-office, if they do this the plan for the in-town shopping centre will be stymied. I have repeatedly brought this up at the Downpatrick area meetings and have had cross party support – but NI Water persist with the proposal.
3. There are no timelines pencilled into the plan, with no figures calculated even in draft, and vague references to short-term, medium-term and long-term for which no definitions exist within the report. If the plan is to happen it needs to be believable.

Councillor Cadogan Enright Concluded “The Master Plan envisages the biggest changes to the natural environment since the creation of the Quoile barrier, the draining of the Lough or the new Belfast Road. No process to deliver an environmental impact statement is envisaged in the report, nor are issues dealing with changes in weather patterns addressed –vital to a town whose centre is almost half a meter below sea-level.”

GREEN PARTY OBJECT TO PROPOSED DEVELOPMENT ON MOSS ROAD

Published
by
John Hardy
on August 19, 2010
in 1. GREEN PRESS RELEASES / LATEST NEWS, Ballynahinch/Spa, Mark McCormick, Planning issues and illegal development, Pollution, Traffic/Rat Runs/Roads and Wildlife/Trees/Nature
. 0 Comments
Local Green Party Co-ordinator Mark McCormick

Local Green Party Co-ordinator Mark McCormick

Green Party Local cordinator Mark McCormick has objected to a proposal for a housing development in the Moss Road area of Ballynahinch on the following grounds:

•The Moss Road is used as a rat run and already struggles to cater for the heavy traffic it is subjected with. If 35 dwellings are going to be built on this road how does the developer expect to have heavy machinery and building equipment moved up and down the road and how will residents trying to enter and exit their properties cope with this? Carlisle’s Fresh Foods and the playing fields also mean that this road is used for parking on both sides making it difficult for even one car to make its way along the road. This leads to congestion and it has become so bad that residents have complained there are days they cannot even have their bins emptied as the bin lorry cannot even make it down the road. This shows that there is simply no road network infrastructure to deal with an additional housing development on the Moss Road. The road would have to be extended yet there is no scope as to how this will be done in the application. The application simply states it will widen the road but has not made clear as to where and how this will be done.

•There is currently no access to this site from the Moss Road yet the application proposes the Moss Road as a potential access. The drop from the Moss Road to this site is almost 3 metres so if a site access was to be created an area of the site would have to be raised to this height. Doing this will cause massive disruption to traffic and access to properties of existing residents and I have already highlighted the already existing problems of congestion, in which this will only add to.

•The proposed dwellings are meant to fit into the character of the existing area yet these houses are all set to be two stories. There are no two storey houses on the Moss Road and even on the Belfast Road and so I would dispute that these developments will fit into the character of the area.

•The Moss Road is a north facing road and in the winter the ice does not thaw making the road extremely dangerous. Increasing more traffic on this road will increase the risk of accidents and massively reduce road safety. Also the proposed entrance to the development is close to a bend so any cars that get caught in the ice and unable to break will be heading straight for this entrance which could lead to collisions.

•The playing fields next to this site use to be the town dump which was covered over in the late 1960s. This dump was never cleared and so waste and polluting discharges are currently seeping into the stream and marshes on the proposed site via a drainage pipe. Although it is not the responsibility of the Planning Service to deal with the pollution it is certainly worth noting that this pollution will have an effect on the land the developments would be built on and would be a persistent problem and health threat to any residents in the proposed dwellings.

Pollution from spring at Moss Road site

Pollution from spring at Moss Road site

•The field is prone to flooding and rain water from the Moss Road flows down into the south west of the site. This has not been considered in the planning application and I note that the proposed Bio Disc sewage system is to be positioned at the south west corner of the site. The Bio Disc system would therefore be in an unsuitable location.

•The Down Ards Area Plan 2015 has highlighted a number of other areas in Ballynahinch suitable for housing which have not been developed yet. These are the areas where housing developments should be sought, not in an area such as this application where there are a number of factors making it unsuitable. There are already many empty houses in Ballynahinch town and new estates built on the Riverside Road.

•Prior to the PAC decision, removing this area from the LLPA, it was stated that the area was in the interests of nature conservation and facilitated wildlife linkages within urban and wider countryside areas. How has this changed? The development of this site will destroy any wildlife and nature that is of priceless value to this area. The Moss Road is known for the beautiful view over this site and the drumlin landscape of Ballynahinch. Destroying this character area and green field site will damage the value of the houses on the Moss Road and the very identity of the landscape reducing house prices and living quality of all.

•It is clear that there are many problems with this site and planning application and I do not feel the applicant has properly analysed the plausibility of this site. This is clearly evident in the fact that the applicant has spelt Ballynahinch wrongly as ‘Ballinahinch’ throughout the plans showing that this was a rushed job and the full considerations of the site and residents of the Moss Road have not been taken into account.

Greens celebrate Festival of Flight success

Published
by
Cadogan Enright
on August 19, 2010
in 1. GREEN PRESS RELEASES / LATEST NEWS, Cadogan Enright, Council, John Hardy, Newcastle and Working with other Parties
. 0 Comments


Greens welcome Festival of Flight success, originally uploaded by downgreenparty.

Cllr Cadogan Enright welcomed the success of the ‘Festival of Flight’ at the weekend, and highlighted the importance of the inclusion of the Irish Air Corp in the event along with the Red Arrows.

“This changed the flavor of the event from a Militaristic display to that of celebration of Aerial Acrobatics” said Green Party Councillor Enright.

Cllr Enright said “When the Red Arrow proposal first came before council it looked like a Militaristic Display being underwritten by the council. Clearly this would have been offensive to many in South Down who were opposed to the Invasion of Iraq and who expressed worries about the role of the Red Arrow team in that conflict.

Additionally reservations were made by Nationalist Councillors that the proposal was not structured to deal with cross-community concerns. It is an established fact that over one third of this area votes Republican at elections.”

Cadogan Enright continued, “The Green Party’s proposal to include the Irish Air Corps was supported by the Ulster Unionist councillors, and won support from all sides”, this changed the flavor from one of welcoming the Red Arrows back from Iraq to focusing on the Aerial and Engineering legacy of Harry Ferguson. Any possibility of anti-war protests or complaints about lack of inclusiveness were averted.”

“This level of cooperation amongst our elected representatives for the benefit of the whole community is to be welcomed, and is yet another example of how working in a cross-community manner can reap great economic benefits to the district and for our image as a tourist destination.” Concluded Cadogan Enright.

GREEN PARTY EXPRESSES DISMAY OVER ABANDONED CAR

Published
by
Cadogan Enright
on August 19, 2010
in 1. GREEN PRESS RELEASES / LATEST NEWS, Ballynahinch/Spa, Cadogan Enright, Council, Littering/Vandalism/Crime and Mark McCormick
. 0 Comments


Stolen car abandoned at Windmill Gardens, originally uploaded by downgreenparty.

Mark McCormick, Green Party coordinator in Ballynahinch, expressed dismay over a car in good condition having been rolled down the embankment at Windmill Gardens.

Mark McCormick said ‘This car had not been reported stolen so is not being dealt with by the police. It is up to date with tax, etc. I contacted my party colleague Cadogan Enright at the request of local people to see if the Council could rescue the vehicle before it becomes vandalized and unusable.

Green Party Cllr Cadogan Enright said “Environmental Health Officer Richard Henry is dealing with this matter and I would call upon local people to keep an eye on the vehicle until it can be safely recovered. This may take as long as seven days.”

“I share Mark McCormick’s dismay that neither the police nor the Council appear to be able to rescue abandoned motor vehicles in a timely manner. I intend to bring this up at the Down Policing Partnership meetings, as at the minimum it would seem sensible to phone the person who has taxed the vehicle to warn them that their car is in trouble, rather than just waiting for the seven day statutory period to expire”, concluded Green Party Cllr Cadogan Enright.