19 Oct 07

Proposed sale of Council Land  - update

   Land at Main Road Cloughey

   The narrow strip of land that Ards Council      proposes to sell off for housing.

Background - Ards Council voted a few months ago to dispose of 7 plots of land in various locations including the narrow piece of land between Main Road and the beach at Cloughey.  However unlike the other disposals, the Cloughey land sale was subject to achieving a succesful planning application for development on the site.

Planning Appliction lodged - An Outline Planning Application has now been lodged by the Council for a single dwelling on part of the land, and anyone can write to Planning Service to object or comment on the application. 

Local objections to sale ignored by Council -  When this proposal was first mooted, CDCA and many residents of Cloughey raised concerns with the Council that this land was in a prominent seafront position and should be preserved as open space.  It is currently a grass area used for picnicking and is one of the few areas where disabled people can get a good view of the beach at Cloughey.  CDCA suggested that it could be turned into a wildflower meadow which would reduce the mainenance cost of cutting the grass on a regular basis, but this suggestion was not even considered and Council even voted against a last-minute proposal by Cllr Kieran McCarthy to exclude the Cloughey land from the overall scheme.

We have been advised by a planning consultant that this application has very little chance of success and should be refused by Planning Service on several policy grounds.  The main issue is that it lies outside the proposed Settlement Limit for Cloughey in the Ards Down Area Plan and must therefore be treated as Green Belt land.  THe joint ministerial Statement of Jan 2005 would also apply to reinforce the need to give weight to the Draft Ards Down Plan prior to its formal adoption.

However, we are also advised that robust objections from a large number of people in the village would help to prevent a "rogue" decision on the grounds of public interest.  The proposed sale of this land is not intended for the direct benefit of the local community but is part of a larger scheme to raise revenue from the sale of surplus assets by Ards Borough Council.  Your objection will help to ensure that this application is refused and the land will remain in public ownership.

We do not see how the sale and development of this prominent seafront site in public ownership can benefit our community or our local environment and we would urge residents to object to it by writing to Planning Service.

To view the Map submitted with the planning application click on the link below:

Map of proposed development site