Monthly Archives: June 2017

East Antrim: Colossal surge to the DUP

The DUP’s share of the vote in East Antrim has increased by a remarkable margin. Sammy Wilson won the strongly-unionist seat with 57.3% of the vote – an increase of more than half compared with his 2015 results. Sammy Wilson In 2015, he had got 36.1% of the vote. Meanwhile, the Alliance Party leaped forward into second place in the constituency, winning 16% of the vote and displacing the UUP, which polled only 9.3%. Turnout jumped from 53.6% in 2015 to 60.8% this time. Speaking before official results were in, DUP Mr Wilson put the huge surge in votes down in part to that fact that UKIP and the TUV were not standing this time around. John Stewart In the last general election, those two smaller parties together took more than 15% of the vote. Mr Wilson also said that “people did respond to the call I made in my … Continue reading

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Follow up inspection links Woodburn fish deaths to faulty equipment

The recent fish kill at Woodburn Reservoir catchment area was most likely linked to faulty equipment used as part of the re-stocking process, according to the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs. Details were given in a DAERA update to East Antrim UUP MLA Roy Beggs after he had called for an urgent investigation into last month’s incident. The department told the Assemblyman: “Three of the Woodburn waters were stocked in May and to date fish mortalities have only been found at two of them. Reports indicated that only some fish were dead whilst other fish appeared to be unaffected and that anglers are continuing to catch fish at these sites. “Brown trout are particularly vulnerable to warm water temperatures as the level of available dissolved oxygen drops, especially during still weather conditions. Lakes can stratify and the top layer of water becomes deoxygenated. This can be sufficient to … Continue reading

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Beggs receives DAERA reply on Woodburn Fish Kill

East Antrim Ulster Unionist Party MLA Roy Beggs has received an update from the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA) that the recent fish kill at Woodburn was most likely linked to faulty equipment used as part of the fish re-stocking process. Mr Beggs MLA contacted the Permanent Secretary in DAERA, stating, “There has been a fish kill at the public reservoir which supplies water to much of my East Antrim constituency.  DAERA are responsible for both re-stocking fish at the Woodburn reservoirs and for investigating fish kills and the potential of water pollution.  Given the key roles played by DAERA, I would ask for an urgent investigation to establish the cause of the fish kill at the Woodburn reservoirs.  Please advise if the re-stocking process caused the fish kill or identify an alternative cause.  Please also advise what lessons are being learned from this incident which is … Continue reading

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