North Down Borough Council facts for kids

Quick facts for kids North Down Borough
North Down Borough Council logo
Area	81 km2 (31 sq mi)  Ranked 26th of 26
District HQ	Bangor
Catholic	13.5%
Protestant	73.2%
Country	Northern Ireland
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
EU Parliament	Northern Ireland
Councillors	MLAs DUP: 3 Alliance Party: 1 Green Party: 1 UUP: 1 MPs Sylvia Hermon (Independent)
List of places UK Northern Ireland

The North Down Borough Council was a local government body in County Down, Northern Ireland. It was like a local government team that looked after the North Down area. This council worked until May 2015.

After that, it joined up with the Ards Borough Council. Together, they became a new, bigger council called the North Down and Ards District Council. This change happened because of a plan to reorganise local government in Northern Ireland.

The main town in the North Down area was Bangor. It's about 12 miles east of Belfast and had around 68,000 people living there. The council's main office was also in Bangor. Another important town was Holywood, which is about 8 km northeast of Belfast and had about 10,000 people. Many other smaller villages along the coast of Belfast Lough were also part of the area.

This area was very popular for people who worked in Belfast. They would travel by train to and from work. North Down was often seen as one of the wealthiest areas in Northern Ireland. However, there were also some areas with less wealth, especially in public housing estates around the Bangor Ring Road.

What the Council Did

The North Down Borough Council was in charge of local services for its residents. This included things like looking after parks, collecting rubbish, and making sure local rules were followed.

The borough was divided into four main areas for elections:

• Abbey
• Ballyholme and Groomsport
• Bangor West
• Holywood

In the 2011 election, 25 people were chosen to be councillors. These councillors came from different political parties. The main parties elected were:

• 11 from the Democratic Unionist Party
• 6 from the Alliance Party
• 4 from the Ulster Unionists
• 1 from the Green Party
• 2 who were Independent (meaning they didn't belong to a specific party)

Interestingly, North Down and Carrickfergus Borough Council were the only councils in Northern Ireland that didn't have any councillors from Nationalist political parties.

The Borough of North Down was first created in 1973. This happened during a big change in how local government was organised. It brought together older areas like Bangor Urban District, Holywood Urban District, North Down Rural District, and a part of Castlereagh Rural District.

For elections to the Westminster Parliament (the main UK Parliament), the North Down area was part of a slightly larger area called the North Down constituency.

How Councillors Were Elected (2011)

Let's look at the results from the last election for the North Down Borough Council in 2011. This shows how many seats each political party won.

The Role of the Mayor

The Mayor was the leader of the North Down Borough Council for a year. They would represent the council and the local area at different events. Here are some of the people who served as Mayor:

Changes to Local Government

There was a big plan called the Review of Public Administration (RPA). This plan aimed to make local government in Northern Ireland more efficient. Because of this plan, the North Down Borough Council was meant to join with Ards in 2011. This would create a much larger council area.

The elections for local councils were supposed to happen in May 2009. However, the government decided to delay these elections. They wanted to wait until the new, bigger councils were ready to start in 2011. In the end, the merger and the next election happened in 2015.

Population of North Down

According to the 2011 Northern Ireland census, the area that the North Down Borough Council looked after had 78,937 people living there.

Images for kids

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  Map of the borough's electoral areas from 1993 to 2014