Storm Recovery - January 2025

Ards and North Down Borough Council would like to thank our residents, businesses and service users for their patience during Storm Eowyn.

Please do not travel to a site until checking this page for updates.

Leisure

· Facilities including Ards Blair Mayne Wellbeing and Leisure Complex, Comber Leisure Centre, Portaferry Leisure Centre, Londonderry Park (opening hours www.leisureardsandnorthdown.com/centres)

· Bangor Sportsplex and Queens Leisure Complex (opening hours www.northdownleisure.com)

· All Community Centres will reopen and pre-bookings will be alerted if a problem exists within a particular centre.

Bangor Aurora Aquatic & Leisure Complex

The gym and spin studio reopened on Wednesday 29 January with usual opening hours.

From Saturday 1 February:

Pools will reopen, including leisure waters
Swimming lessons will resume
Workout classes will resume
Cafe reopens
Gymnastics lessons will resume (in the wellness studios for time being)

Please note, soft play, squash courts, and sports hall will remain closed for now. The Family Fun Night will return on the last Friday in February. For updates over the weekend follow Bangor Aurora on Facebook

We understand that this is frustrating for all users of Bangor Aurora Aquatic and Leisure Complex but Council officers, NCLT and contractors continue to work tirelessly to ensure more facilities at Aurora reopen as soon as possible without compromising safety.

We will continue to provide details of next steps and a further timeline as soon as it is available.

Waste and Cleansing

Most kerbside collections have taken place as scheduled this week and are expected to continue as normal in the coming days. A small number of roads are closed due to NIE repairs resulting in collections not taking place. Alternative collections for those areas will be arranged as soon as possible.

Please leave your bin kerbside by 7am for our crews to collect as normal. Check your collection schedule here: Bin Collection Schedule - Ards and North Down Borough Council

All HRCs across the Borough are open as normal from Monday 27 January, please remember to pre-book a slot for your visit here: HRC Booking System - Ards and North Down Borough Council

Food Safety and Food Waste

If you or somebody you know is affected by power cuts, it's important to ensure that your food remains safe to eat.

For detailed advice on food safety during power cuts, visit the Food Standards Agency website: Food safety in a power cut - advice for consumers | Food Standards Agency

If you have had a power cut caused by the recent storms and your freezer has now been off for more than 48 hours, you will need to dispose of any food remaining as it is now not safe to eat .

You should dispose of food items in your brown bin but please remove packaging first and place in the most appropriate recycling bin. Alternatively you can take food waste to one of our Household Recycling Centres (HRCs) for disposal in the brown food waste bins on sites - please remove all packaging. Book your slot via HRC Booking System - Ards and North Down Borough Council

You should also contact your home insurance company, and they will advise on what evidence you need if you wish to make a claim for freezer contents.

You should clean your freezer out to prevent growth of bacteria and smells from developing. 

When you are reconnected to electricity again make sure you let your freezer cool to -18 degrees before you begin to fill it again with food products.

Cemeteries

We understand how important it is for you to visit your loved ones, and our staff have worked hard to reopen all our cemeteries. Following final safety assessments all cemeteries are open and the clean-up operation continues. We ask visitors to please continue to take care on site.

While we have made the sites secure for visiting, we regret to inform you that the recent strong winds have caused considerable damage. Unfortunately, personal floral displays and mementos have been displaced.

We sincerely apologise for any distress this may cause and assure you that our staff will do their utmost to tidy these areas as soon as possible.

Please note that Greyabbey Cemetery will be partially opened due to substantial damage on site.

Parks

The majority of our parks, open spaces and play parks reopened on Monday 27 January (subject to inspection). Please take caution when visiting any of these locations as Storm Eowyn will have caused trees to weaken and storm debris will still be visible.

Following initial assessments, the following areas continue to be heavily impacted and will remain closed until further notice:

Cairnwood - Extensive damage; likely to remain closed for a while.
Glenlyon Park - Hazardous conditions due to fallen trees and a damaged power line.
Whitespots Park - Closed due to numerous fallen trees.
Balloo Wetlands - this site has been closed from Tuesday 28 January to allow for major tree works to be carried out.

Our staff will use barrier tape and if possible signage to indicate closures. These closures are for public safety reasons so please do not remove/cross barriers. This list of closures may be updated if we identify further areas of risk. Please do continue to take care when out and about as trees and branches will have become weakened due to the recent storm.

We will be resurveying all our trees over the days and weeks ahead.

Community Support

We are delighted that, over 200 people have made use of our support services in various locations throughout the Borough. If you are still without power and need to charge devices, have a shower or a hot drink and get warm you can attend the following locations this week.