Down District Council

From Freepedia

**Down District**
Image:NorthernIrelandDownBorough.png
Geography
Area - Total - % Water	Ranked 7th 647 km² ? %
Admin HQ	Downpatrick
ISO 3166-2	GB-DOW
ONS code	95R
Demographics
Population - Total (April 29, 2001) - Density	Ranked 10th 63,828 99 / km²
Community	Protestant: 35.5% Catholic: 61.9%
Politics
Down District Council http://www.downdc.gov.uk
MPs	Iris Robinson Eddie McGrady

Down District Council is a Local Council in County Down in Northern Ireland. The Council is headquartered in Downpatrick. Other towns in the Council area are Ardglass, Ballynahinch, Castlewellan, Clough, Crossgar, Dundrum, Killough, Killyleagh, Newcastle, Saintfield, Seaforde and Strangford. It covers a population of nearly 64,000.

The Down District Council area consists of 4 electoral areas: Ballynahinch, Downpatrick, Newcastle and Rowallane. At the last election in 2005 23 Councillors were elected from the following political parties: 10 Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP), 5 Sinn Féin, 4 Ulster Unionist Party (UUP), 3 Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) and 1 Green Party. The current Council Chairman is Councillor Robert Burgess (UUP) and the Vice Chair is Councillor Carmel O'Boyle (SDLP).

The next elections are due to take place in May 2009.

In elections for the Westminster Parliament it is split between the Strangford constituency and the South Down constituency.