Alliance Councillors express concerns about delays in messaging about water quality in Newcastle beach
Alliance Councillors Andrew McMurray (Slieve Croob) and Jill Truesdale (Mournes) have not had any response from both Newry Mourne and Down District Council nor the Northern Environment Agency (NIEA) regarding a pressing issue regarding Newcastle beach.
The issue over water quality appears to have arisen from Saturday late afternoon 17thxa0June, regarding the ‘Notice of No Bathing’ issued for Newcastle beach.
Cllr Jill Truesdale said: “A series of posters stapled to the promenade and an over-reliance on word-of-mouth falls far short of what should happen.
“The social media pages from both departments had absolutely no information on them and a promised update to be issued at 11am on the 19thxa0has not, at the time of this release, appeared.”
Andy McMurray said: “In the midst of hot weather and when our beaches are full, water quality messaging procedures have not been as robust as they should have been.
“We will be asking for a full review of all methods used by DAERA/NIEA and the Council to be utilised when something of this magnitude occurs.
“The public water quality monitoring information boards on Newcastle promenade are either broken or switched off, the town tannoy system was not employed and the RNLI and Coastguard were not informed until Saturday lunchtime.”
 and Jill Truesdale (Mournes) have not had any response from both Newry Mourne and Down){kind=link}