Portstewart fencing repair plans welcomed after council told 'there are 30 rails there and 20 of them are broken'
Causeway Coast and Glens Borough Council has welcomed news the railings at Portstewart’s Strand Road Car Park will soon be fixed.
Alliance representative Richard Brown Stewart said he has to hold onto his children’s hands when passing the railings, as they are unsafe.
During October’s Environmental Services Committee meeting, DUP alderman Mark Fielding put forward a notice of motion, asking if council had engaged with ‘relevant agencies, individuals, or organisations to assist to resolve the broken fencing at Strand Road Car Park Portstewart’.
Alderman Fielding said getting the fencing fixed has been an ‘long-running saga’, due to a lack of clarity around who is responsible; council, Department for Infrastructure (DfI), or the land owner.
“The way the public is, any defects or anything broken on public grounds, council always gets blamed, but this is an issue of land ownership,” he added.
“It’s a fantastic viewpoint and all that, but residents and tourists see this as an eyesore at a tourist hotspot.”
Director of Environmental Services, Aidan McPeake, said establishing responsibility had been “quite a task”, but as the fencing was erected by a legacy council it falls on council to fix it, and he will be “setting the wheels in motion” to repair it as soon as possible.
Alderman Fielding replied: “There are 30 rails there and 20 of them are broken, so it’s good that council has taken control of this and it will be another headache off our list.”
Alderman Brown Stewart said the fencing was his very first piece of casework as an elected member, over three years ago.
“I’ve been told over the last couple of years that it’s not council, DfI or the land owner, so I’m glad that we’ve got clarity on that,” he said.
“I would express the urgency to repair it because, as a resident of Portstewart walking that path frequently, I have to hold on to my children’s hands walking past there.
“So I would just hope that that can be given the priority because it is a dangerous health and safety risk, but it’s good we’ve got there in the end.”
Andrew Balfour, Local Democracy Reporter