| Down District | |
Sign bearing Down District Council logo |
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| Geography | |
| Area - Total |
Ranked 7th of 26 647 km² |
|---|---|
| Admin HQ | Downpatrick |
| ISO 3166-2 | GB-DOW |
| ONS code | 95R |
| Demographics | |
| Population - Total (2010) - Density |
Ranked 9th 70,800 109 / km² |
| Community | Catholic: 62% Protestant: 34% |
| Politics | |
| Control | No overall control SDLP: 9 Sinn Féin: 5 DUP: 3 UUP: 3 Alliance Party: 1 Green Party: 1 Independent: 1 |
| MLAs | South Down & Strangford DUP: 4 UUP: 3 Sinn Féin: 2 SDLP: 2 Alliance Party: 1 |
| MPs | Margaret Ritchie (SDLP) Jim Shannon (DUP) |
| Meeting place | |
| Website | |
| http://www.downdc.gov.uk | |
Down District Council is a Local Council in County Down in Northern Ireland. The Council is headquartered in Downpatrick. Other towns in the Council area are Ardglass, Ballynahinch, Castlewellan, Clough, Crossgar, Dundrum, Killough, Killyleagh, Newcastle, Saintfield, Seaforde and Strangford. It covers a population of nearly 64,000.
The Down District Council area consists of 4 electoral areas: Ballynahinch, Downpatrick, Newcastle and Rowallane. At the last election in 2005 23 Councillors were elected from the following political parties: 10 Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP), 5 Sinn Féin, 4 Ulster Unionist Party (UUP), 3 Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) and 1 Green Party. One of the UUP councillors has since defected to the Conservative Party. The current Council Chairman is Councillor Colin McGrath (SDLP) and the Vice Chair is Councillor William Dick (DUP).
In elections for the Westminster Parliament it is split between the Strangford constituency and the South Down constituency.
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The Council has periodically had to provide funding to ensure that the Saint Patrick Visitor Centre in Downpatrick remains in operation. It has also funded a major promenade infrastructure regeneration in Newcastle. The new promenade has won a number of National awards including a Civic Trust Award for Excellence in the Public Realm.
Under the Review of Public Administration (RPA) the Council is due to merge with Newry and Mourne District Council in 2011 to form a single council for the enlarged area totalling 1539 km² and a population of 150,886.[1] The next election was due to take place in May 2009, but on April 25, 2008, Shaun Woodward, Secretary of State for Northern Ireland announced that the scheduled 2009 district council elections were to be postponed until the introduction of the eleven new councils in 2011.[2]
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