Council takes in over £400k in Forest Park charges in first six months

Newry, Mourne and Down District Council has raked in over £420k in the first six months from its new forest park charges.

The council began charging new car park tariffs in April for Kilbroney and Slieve Gullion with a six month review in October.

The local authority approved the new visitor costs despite an online petition of thousands of signatories and objections from some councillors.

The Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) understands an exact total of £420,477 was collected through the council’s forest park charges.

A report reviewing the charges is due to be presented to the strategy, policy and resources committee in December.

Other forest parks in NMDDC collecting similar revenue included in the total figures include Delamont and Castlewellan.

The vast majority of the money was collected on daily rate entries of at a total of £331, 812 with income from season permit purchases at £88,665.

A family car is charged £5 per day and a £50 fee for buses.

In order, most permits were bought for Castlewellan, Kilbroney, Delamont and Slieve Gullion the lowest.
Almost 17,700 residents received a single permit pass at no cost and over 2,000 bought an all park pass costing £25 raising over £51k for the council.

Purchases of permits from people living outside of NMDDC included almost 1,125 for single permits (£25) gaining more than £28k and close to 155 people buying all park permits (£60) collecting £9,240.
NMDDC now plans to continue with the carparking charges with residents expected to be issued with free single permit passes from March 2025.