Castlereagh Borough Council
Encyclopedia
Castlereagh is a local government district
Local government in Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland is divided into 26 districts for local government purposes. In Northern Ireland local councils do not carry out the same range of functions as those in the rest of the United Kingdom, for example they have no responsibility for education, for road building or for housing...

 with the status of borough
Borough status in the United Kingdom
Borough status in the United Kingdom is granted by royal charter to local government districts in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. The status is purely honorary, and does not give any additional powers to the council or inhabitants of the district...

  in Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland is one of the four countries of the United Kingdom. Situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, it shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west...

. It is a largely urban borough bordering Belfast. Unusually, it has no natural borough centre, largely consisting of a series of suburbs of Belfast
Belfast
Belfast is the capital of and largest city in Northern Ireland. By population, it is the 14th biggest city in the United Kingdom and second biggest on the island of Ireland . It is the seat of the devolved government and legislative Northern Ireland Assembly...

 in the Castlereagh Hills to the south-east of the city with a small rural area to the south of the borough. The main centres of population are Carryduff
Carryduff
Carryduff is a small town and townland in County Down, Northern Ireland, about south of Belfast city centre. It had a population of 6,595 people in the 2001 Census....

, 6 miles (9.6 km) south of Belfast city centre and Dundonald
Dundonald
Dundonald is a large settlement in County Down, Northern Ireland. It lies east of Belfast and is often deemed to be a suburb of the city. It includes the large housing estate of Ballybeen, and many new housing estates have emerged in the past ten years....

, 5 miles (8 km) east of it. The population totals nearly 66,500.

Creation

The district is one of twenty-six created on 1 October 1973. It was formed by the amalgamation of the following areas of County Down
County Down
-Cities:*Belfast *Newry -Large towns:*Dundonald*Newtownards*Bangor-Medium towns:...

: most of Castlereagh Rural District, the Carryduff
Carryduff
Carryduff is a small town and townland in County Down, Northern Ireland, about south of Belfast city centre. It had a population of 6,595 people in the 2001 Census....

 and Newtownbreda
Newtownbreda
Newtownbreda is an electoral ward of the Borough of Castlereagh in Northern Ireland. At one time "Newtownbreda" referred to a small village to the south-east of Belfast. However, it is now part of the Greater Belfast conurbation and Newtownbreda now tends to refer to the wider area from Hydebank to...

 areas of Hillsborough Rural District and the Moneyreagh
Moneyreagh
Moneyreagh or Moneyrea is a small village and townland in County Down, Northern Ireland. It is just off the main road between Belfast and Ballygowan....

 area of North Down Rural District.

Borough council

The borough is divided into four electoral areas: Castlereagh Central, South, East and West. In the elections in 2005, 23 members were elected. As of February 2011 the political composition of the council is: 13 Democratic Unionist Party
Democratic Unionist Party
The Democratic Unionist Party is the larger of the two main unionist political parties in Northern Ireland. Founded by Ian Paisley and currently led by Peter Robinson, it is currently the largest party in the Northern Ireland Assembly and the fourth-largest party in the House of Commons of the...

 (DUP), 4 Ulster Unionist Party
Ulster Unionist Party
The Ulster Unionist Party – sometimes referred to as the Official Unionist Party or, in a historic sense, simply the Unionist Party – is the more moderate of the two main unionist political parties in Northern Ireland...

 (UUP), 4 Alliance Party
Alliance Party of Northern Ireland
The Alliance Party of Northern Ireland is a liberal and nonsectarian political party in Northern Ireland. It is Northern Ireland's fifth-largest party overall, with eight seats in the Northern Ireland Assembly and one in the House of Commons....

 and 2 Social Democratic and Labour Party
Social Democratic and Labour Party
The Social Democratic and Labour Party is a social-democratic, Irish nationalist political party in Northern Ireland. Its basic party platform advocates Irish reunification, and the further devolution of powers while Northern Ireland remains part of the United Kingdom...

 (SDLP). The next election was due to take place in May 2009, but on April 25, 2008, Shaun Woodward
Shaun Woodward
Shaun Anthony Woodward is a British Labour Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament for St Helens South since 2001. He served in the Cabinet from 28 June 2007 to 11 May 2010 as Secretary of State for Northern Ireland...

, Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
The Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, informally the Northern Ireland Secretary, is the principal secretary of state in the government of the United Kingdom with responsibilities for Northern Ireland. The Secretary of State is a Minister of the Crown who is accountable to the Parliament of...

 announced that the scheduled 2009 district council elections were to be postponed until the introduction of the eleven new councils in 2011. The proposed reforms were abandoned in 2010, and the next district council elections will take place in 2011
Northern Ireland local elections, 2011
The most recent Northern Ireland local government elections took place on Thursday 5 May 2011.European Union and Commonwealth citizens who were aged 18 or over on election day were entitled to vote...


Mayor of Castlereagh

In 1977 Castlereagh District Council was granted a charter of incorporation
Royal Charter
A royal charter is a formal document issued by a monarch as letters patent, granting a right or power to an individual or a body corporate. They were, and are still, used to establish significant organizations such as cities or universities. Charters should be distinguished from warrants and...

 constituting the district as a borough, and creating the office of mayor.

The mayor for the civic year 2010-2011 is councillor Vivienne McCoy (DUP) and the Deputy Mayor is councillor David Drysdale (UUP).

Town twinning

Castlereagh and the city of Kent
Kent, Washington
Kent is a city located in King County, Washington, United States, and is the third largest city in King County and the sixth largest in the state. An outlying suburb of Seattle, Kent is also the corporate home for companies such as REI and Oberto Sausage...

 in Washington in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 signed up as sister cities
Town twinning
Twin towns and sister cities are two of many terms used to describe the cooperative agreements between towns, cities, and even counties in geographically and politically distinct areas to promote cultural and commercial ties.- Terminology :...

 partners on 1 August 2000.

Parliamentary and assembly representation

The borough is divided between the East Belfast constituency (the wards of Ballyhanwood, Carrowreagh, Cregagh, Downshire, Dundonald, Enler, Gilnahirk, Graham’s Bridge, Lisnasharragh, Lower Braniel, Tullycarnet and Upper Braniel), the South Belfast constituency (Beechill, Cairnshill, Carryduff East, Carryduff West, Galwally, Hillfoot, Knockbracken, Minnowburn, Newtownbreda and Wynchurch wards) and the Strangford constituency (Moneyreagh ward) for elections to the Westminster Parliament and Northern Ireland Assembly
Northern Ireland Assembly
The Northern Ireland Assembly is the devolved legislature of Northern Ireland. It has power to legislate in a wide range of areas that are not explicitly reserved to the Parliament of the United Kingdom, and to appoint the Northern Ireland Executive...

.

Elections 2011

These elections saw the political landscape at Castlereagh change dramatically. The DUP lost overall control of the council due to the loss of two council seats, one in Central and one in the East. The UUP also lost their sole representative in the East. The Alliance party gained one in East and Central, while the Green party gained in East also. There were no changes in the West or South areas (there was much speculation that demographic change would deliver a Sinn Fein a seat in South, however these claims turned out to be unfounded, with the SDLP being the sixth placed runner up being narrowly beaten by the UUP for the fifth seat.

External links

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