DCC paid just £10k in rent to Crown Estate

The amount paid out by Councils across Northern Ireland in 2011/12 was £222,709.

Just £1,940 was paid out in rent by Limavady Borough Council.

The largest payment by any local Council for “rent or lease for facilities on the sea-bed or on land” was £120,335 in North Down and £45,480 in Carrickfergus.

The Crown Estate - which owns Lough Foyle and the seabed to a distance of 12 nautical miles off the Northern Ireland coast - brought in £46.6m from its marine estate in 2009/10 and currently owns marine property valued at more than £400m.

Dublin recently flexed its muscles on Lough Foyle - which is Crown Estate property - after the Irish planning board approved a compulsory purchase order for part of its seabed.

Almost three years ago the Sentinel revealed how the Republic of Ireland’s (ROI) territorial ambitions in Lough Foyle were partly blamed for blocking the Project Kelvin submarine cable’s progress up the waterway.