1. T
he new Newry Mourne and
Down super council will
operate from 1st
April. At its
heart, the Mourne Mountains, a desig-
nated Area of Outstanding Natural
Beauty (AONB). I talked to Martin
Carey, Chief Executive of Mourne
Heritage Trust (MHT), about how the
new administrative set up will affect
their work.
Mourne is one of eight AONBs which
cover a fifth of Northern Ireland. It
spans 570 square kilometres and includes
spectacular coast line, rolling drumlins and
lofty mountains.
Martin Carey sums up the role of the
MHT as, “environmental and visitor man-
agement”.
Projects the trust has been involved in
include “Mourne Homesteads” - restoring
old cottages for modern use, upland path
erosion-control and the creation of walking
trails.
Their day-to-day responsibilities include
litter control, looking after car-parks and
amenity sites, maintaining stiles and cutting
lanes.
Martin told me that many of these ser-
vices are provided on behalf of the existing
councils: “We have service-level agree-
ments. Our services of emptying litter bins
and cutting grass are directly on their lands.
Our services on green lanes are on rights-
of-ways that the councils have responsibil-
ity for.”
Martin explained that the MHT also
acts as a partner to the councils: “On the
restoration of Annalong Corn Mill, again
owned by council, we put the proposal
together, attracted the funding and worked
with the council to get it done so it’s a very
close relationship.”
The Mourne AONB currently
straddles three council areas: 60% in
Newry and Mourne, 28% in Down and 12%
in Banbridge.
Mr Carey said that working with three
administrative centres proved difficult at
times. Although reluctant to single out any
one council for criticism, he seemed to
suggest apathy from Newry and Mourne
towards their obligations.
“The interesting thing is that the degree
of interest and support from the councils
hasn’t always been proportionate with the
area of AONB that they had”, he said.
He suggested that a variation in interest
could be deduced in the council’s approach
to countryside dwellings: “Newry and
Mourne has tended to facilitate more single
housing developments and is perhaps less
exacting around design”.
Mr. Carey countered this, referring to
cultural variations and different historical
approaches to rural settlement that could
account for this: “To what extent it is the
application of the policy or is it the reflec-
tion of the desires of the people in the areas
- different tastes? I suspect it’s a bit of both.”
Apathy from all three councils towards
the AONB, according to Mr Carey, was in-
part due to their remoteness.
Of the council HQs, Banbridge is 15miles
away from Mourne, Downpatrick 12miles
and Newry 16miles. Both historically and
geographically, the large urban centres
tended to view Mourne as “somewhere
else”.
Additionally the three council bound-
aries meet in Mourne, so none has sole
responsibility or a feeling of ownership.
This will change when the Mournes form
the unified centrepiece of the new super-
council.
Future
The new council stretches from Louth
to North Down. It includes three
1st April 2015,
a new dawn for
Mourne
15
Hilltown
Ulster Geographic
AONBs and two sea loughs.
The Mournes can be seen from all parts
of the district.
Martin views the amalgamation as posi-
tive: “We worked across three council areas
and could see the inefficiencies that came
from that”, he said.
He is keen to see the localizing of powers,
so removing the perceived remoteness of
the administration from the day to day life
in the area: “The community planning is
going to be a very positive thing in terms of
shaping council services and how they are
delivered.
“The fact that the single council now has
control of this landscape, means we can
look at what strategically is the best way to
capitalize on it in-order to benefit the wider
area, rather than three councils looking at
their little bit.”
Initially the new council will pick up
where the previous three left off, so for
the first year the trust will not witness too
many changes. The council and MHT will
however begin looking at opportunities for
enhancing services and making them more
efficient.
Martin is not overly worried about po-
tential future cuts to funding: “The message
we are seeing is strong. The chief executive
of the new council has highlighted tourism
as the key driver to the local economy and
we support tourism. The draft corporate
plan makes much of the fact that the new
council area has three AONBs.”
But he admitted it will not be plain sail-
ing: “Funds are tight. We want to work with
the council to ensure that any investment is
efficient and delivers maximum benefit. The
fact that it’s one council will help with that.
National Park
Could the new super-council lead
to the resurrection of the Mourne
National Park proposal?
The super-council boundaries, drawn
when the idea was still live, is undoubtedly
the reason a chunk of Banbridge Council
was added into the Newry & Mourne-
Down mix.
There was local opposition to the Na-
tional Park when it was first proposed by
the MHT in 2002.
Objections were primarily from upland
farmers who felt their livelihood would be
curtailed, but also from locals who felt the
designation would increase housing costs,
pricing younger generations out of the area.
Martin said they are looking at alterna-
tive models: “What has been suggested is
that public lands might form the basis of a
smaller national park.
“We’re looking at the model of national
parks in the Republic rather than the open-
living landscape model of GB. This might
be more appropriate for Northern Ireland
with our settlement pattern of high num-
bers of very small, fragmented landowner-
ship and not many access rights.”
This constricted park might include the
water-catchment area within the Mourne
wall, Sleive Donard and Sleive Comedagh-
both owned by the National Trust, along
with numerous forest parks and nature
reserves.
He concluded: “The MHT is still of the
view that the park would have been benefi-
cial for the area. Taking an objective analy-
sis, of what was actually being proposed, it
would be difficult to find fault with it.
“So we will see, the council is a new
entity, a coherent Mourne will be a bigger
focus and over time the council may come
to see that the National Park is something
they could get behind.”
www.mournelive.com
www.newrymournedown.gov
Ulster Geographic
14
Mourne AONB with the existing
council boundaries
New super-council boundaries &
AONBs
Mourne AONB within Newry,
Mourne & Down
The Future
Banbridge
Down
Mourne
Sperrins
Strangford
& Lecale
Glens of
Antrim
Causeway Coast
Binevenagh
Newcastle
Newry
Kilkeel
Ardglass
Portaferry
Ballynahinch
Saintfield
Crossmaglen
Newtonhamilton
Bessbrook
Castlewellan
Warrenpoint
Mourne
AONB
Ring of GullionNewry &
Mourne
Downpatrick