Why Warrenpoint is the best choice for the Ferry and NOT Greencastle:

1)      Since 1993 there have been FIVE feasibility studies for a ferry ONLY between GREENORE and GREENCASTLE, Warrenpoint was not even considered!  A ferry at Warrenpoint would provide a tourist attraction to travel the full length of the Lough.

2)      GREENCASTLE was only chosen as it is the “nearest” point to Greenore, regardless of its suitability. In fact, the route that the ferry will take DOES NOT make it the nearest point to Greenore any longer. The narrowest feasible point for a cross-border link is, of course, where "The Warrenpoint Bridge" was proposed. This has no relation to, nor will be in competition with a ferry for tourism purposes.

3)      GREENORE will benefit from this initiative financially as this will give them the status of a “regionally important port” in the Republic of Ireland and therefore have more funding opportunities to expand the port.

4)      RoI has been looking for a Roll-on, Roll-off facility for Greenore as part of their overall Port Strategy, one of their objectives was to divert transport from their roads to ensure efficiency. This is where Northern Ireland comes in. We will be used as this “diversion” for their saving of roads. County Louth Development Plan 2105-21 outlines one of its aims as a “reduction in car dependency”, and this would include HGVs, and to develop their “walking and cycling activities”.

Our roads in South Down are already in a bad state and we need our own cycle and footpaths, why would we want to save Louth’s road usage for the sake of ours?

5)      The whole survey process (public consultation process) was based on “tourism” and gave very ambiguous and misleading questions eg “Would you see the value in a new cross border transport mechanism?”, “Would you visit NI/ROI if it were a 15 min boat trip away?”, and “Do you think this area would benefit from increased investment, tourism and potential from job creation?” Who wouldn’t say yes to these questions?

6)      In fact this is misleading, the boat trip would be between 30 and 45 minutes or longer as it must give way to main channel traffic.

7)      The fourth question asked “do you support the proposal for a car ferry service between Greencastle and Greenore?” Since then, the Council has approved the ferry to carry HGVs with unlimited weight capacity and no restrictions on cargo. Contradiction.

8)      The last question in the survey asked “would you be interested in being kept up to date with information about the service and trying it out?”  - adding in at the end to “try it out” as a way of demonstrating the potential market is totally misleading when most only wanted to be informed.

9)      The Applicant, Paul O'Sullivan of Carlingford Ferries or also known as Frazer Ferries has stated that he would keep the public informed through social media. A facebook site was set up in Summer 2015. It ran for less than a month after posting photos of “beautiful” Greencastle and not being able to respond to comments like “this view will be ruined forever by a 152m concrete pier…”. Nothing has been set up since to engage with the public.

10)   All documentation regarding the ferry does not demonstrate the size of the ferry terminal – In fact it is 152/153 metres long, 15m wide (some parts 19m wide). To put this into some perspective the existing wooden (listed) pier is 70 metres long.

11)   The construction of the concrete pier will take place on the sandy part of the shoreline which is where sand eels spawn. These sand eels are a crucial part of the whole ecosystem of the habitats in Greencastle ie for terns, seals and salmon. All of which are protected species under EU and NI legislation.

12)   The NIEA (who undertook environmental assessments for the Planning team) do not acknowledge that Greencastle has a population of both Harbour and Grey seals. They say that we only have harbour seals and they are from Murlough so they “won’t be harming any wildlife in their habitats”. St Andrews SMRU confirm in their seal report for 2015 that Greencastle has the largest population (and therefore the most important/significant) of harbour seals on the whole island of Ireland. They also confirm that we have Grey seals although these numbers are small.

13)   The NIEA did not assess the harm or damage to the Salmon nor sand eels in any of their latest assessments they undertook for the Planning Team. Yet the Planning Team were aware of these features and did not request a robust assessment.

14)   The NIEA did not assess the potential harm to the habitat of terns in April where they feed along the shoreline (including the site of the proposed pier) before their breeding season in May.

15)   The Planning Committee were given a presentation in February 2015 by the residents’ group and in April the whole Committee changed to the Super Council structure. Ten weeks into their new role in making planning decisions the new Super Council Planning Committee under Jarlath Tinnelly passed this ferry project. Neither he, nor any of the other council members who made this decision, had been privy to this presentation. Had they even been given enough time to read the c3000 pages of the application to understand it all?

16)   After passing it in June 2015 the Council attached 25 conditions to it to ensure some environmental protection with regards to wildlife and the roads. Since then they approved changes to four of them and are waiting to make a decision on another two.

17)   Greencastle is five miles either way to the east or west onto an A road. It is a cul-de-sac. It is used by horse-riders, cyclists, families walking from Cranfield Caravan Park, wedding parties, and many visitors who come to enjoy the tranquil environment and to watch the wildlife. HGVs travelling in and out every hour without a cycle path or footpath will totally make Greencastle inaccessible to tourists. It will only be a conduit or through-route.

18)   Greencastle has the ONLY Royal Castle in NI. The ferry terminal will be constructed directly in front of it on the other side of the only road in and out of Greencastle. The single track lane to the Castle only allows for cars to have access to it. Most people walk or cycle to the Castle. Coach trips sometimes come here too but they need to park at the road side and then visitors walk up the lane.

19)   The exit/entrance to the terminal is only c30m away from the Castle gates. One coach parked at the entrance or one car meeting another along the lane will cause an instant traffic jam along this road with the traffic predicted from the ferry proposal.

20)   They propose to run the ferry every hour – ie crossing the protected Islands (terns and seals breed here) every half hour. In the summer months this will be between 7am and 9pm ie 14 hours or 28 crossings while in the Winter months this will be curtailed to 9am to 5pm ie 8 hours or 16 crossings. For the purpose of their business plan they predict the ferry will be running 364 days a year!  This is disregarding that this is a very exposed area across the mouth of a Lough and that winter months can be treacherous at sea.

21)   The “job” argument: Since the approval, the Applicant has hired companies for different activities – from the ROI eg Pile-driving and social media management.

22)   If the Council believed that this proposal was a bona-fide business they would have recommended a purpose-built welcoming tourist office on site instead of a small portacabin with no foundations. They would also not have included a condition to request the field be reinstated for agricultural use (if they had faith in the business case). So where is the long-term vision for the jobs? And note that there is no corresponding condition to dismantle the 153m concrete pier, which would be left as a permanent reminder, leading from the reinstated agricultural field to the sea.

23)   Warrenpoint Harbour although not affected in the short-term will have unsurpassable competition from Greenore once it has developed as per its plans: talking about their 7000 tonnes of dredging in 2015, they explain “this is to cater for a growing trend in the industry for larger, more efficient vessels”. And with regards to expanding with a new steel terminal and extra storage by removing green sites, they hope to “allow the port to compete for other products which the port does not currently handle”.

24)   Although the Greenore port strategy does mention, albeit briefly, about a cruise enterprise, there is no mention of the development of the port to accommodate/attract tourists, nor is there any reference to the 60 “vehicular” or “car” ferry running across their main commercial channel.

25)   Whatever the main rationale is, this proposal will only be detrimental to the South Down area and of benefit to the Greenore port. It is already divisive in that local communities on both sides of the borders do not agree – mainly in part to the biased propaganda in the press – just look up “Carlingford Ferry IE”  in a search engine – you won’t see any mention of wildlife nor see an image of where the actual route is. Papers in NI are just as restrictive.

26)   Warrenpoint has the infrastructure for traffic with its dual-carriageway and car parks. Warrenpoint is a tourist town and has retail footfall potential for visitors. Warrenpoint is the start of the Mourne area to give any tourists the holistic journey along the “Mourne Coastal Route”. It just makes sense to make it Warrenpoint – this will also secure current jobs and secure a tourism sector which will provide potential for growth in the much needed hospitality sector in the South Down area. We need more hotels not HGVs!

27)   If you care about justice, whether it is for the wildlife or for your neighbour’s job in Warrenpoint or for the safety on our roads or for not wanting to pay subsidies for a ferry that will be short-term – please sign this (as both a constituent and as a potential visitor) and ask our Newry, Mourne and Down District Councillors to make the right decision and to revoke the approval last year to ask for a full robust application with assessment on the wildlife (and whole ecosystem), roads (including wider road network) and economic appraisal (including potential damage to local farming and aquaculture businesses with a view to doing what is best for South Down – choose Warrenpoint not Greencastle.

If you have any questions or comments to make please do – but please sign and share if you care about justice, respect and fairness for ourselves and for our environment. This may be the last summer that Greencastle will be yours as a quiet haven full of wildlife.  We can only try and stop this now and at election time, please make sure you discuss this with your local candidates.

Thank you

Keep it Green