New Larne and Islandmagee camper van sites are under consideration by council

Among those identified are in the vicinity of Larne Town Park and Brown’s Bay in Islandmagee.

The issue was highlighted recently to Mid and East Antrim Borough Council by Bannside TUV representative Councillor Timothy Gaston who tabled a question asking what steps the council has taken to “increase our staycation offering to the growing camping and caravanning sector”.

He was told that “due to global travel restrictions, it was evident that the staycation travel market was going to be the main focus for the majority of marketing activity within Mid and East Antrim” and that a staycation marketing campaign will “resonate with the camping and caraving sub-sector”.

Meanwhile, concern has been expressed previously over parking on the vacant site of the former fish factory in Glenarm after the arrival of 51 camper vans on a Saturday during the first May bank holiday weekend with visitors parking in close proximity to each other.

Councillors were told that on occasions vehicles were parked so close together that doors couldn’t be fully opened.

Coast Road Alliance councillor Alderman Gerardine Mulvenna called for “proper management” of the site at the former fish factory and members were told that “interim arrangements” would be put in place “in light of longer term development plans for the site”.

Larne Lough Ulster Unionist Councillor Keith Turner said previously that the council is “missing a trick” by not charging at other locations along the Coast Road.

Development plans for Glenarm at the seafront include the development of a 4* hotel and a cultural, heritage and community hub on the former quarry site. This will be complemented by the development of an Irish whiskey distillery, supported by a state-of-the-art visitor experience, at the former fish factory and Eglinton yard sites.

Michelle Weir, Local Democracy Reporter

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Click here to read: Mid and East Antrim Council ‘plans to replace’ portable loos at Islandmagee beach

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