Portmore Lough gets £50k boost

Portmore Lough and Lurgan Town Football Club have each received £50k in funding from the Alpha Programme.
By The Newsroom
Published 6th Jul 2018, 11:58 BST
Updated 16th Jul 2018, 17:50 BST
Catriona Grant, Fundraising and Finance Administrator at RSPB NI is pictured with Richard Rogers, Alpha Programme and her RSPB NI colleagues Donnell Black, Portmore Lough Site Manager and Laura Smith, Portmore Lough Warden. RSPB NI, awarded £50k through the Alpha Programme, will use the funding towards the enhancement of the wet grassland habitat at Portmore Lough in Aghalee, Co Antrim.Catriona Grant, Fundraising and Finance Administrator at RSPB NI is pictured with Richard Rogers, Alpha Programme and her RSPB NI colleagues Donnell Black, Portmore Lough Site Manager and Laura Smith, Portmore Lough Warden. RSPB NI, awarded £50k through the Alpha Programme, will use the funding towards the enhancement of the wet grassland habitat at Portmore Lough in Aghalee, Co Antrim.
Catriona Grant, Fundraising and Finance Administrator at RSPB NI is pictured with Richard Rogers, Alpha Programme and her RSPB NI colleagues Donnell Black, Portmore Lough Site Manager and Laura Smith, Portmore Lough Warden. RSPB NI, awarded £50k through the Alpha Programme, will use the funding towards the enhancement of the wet grassland habitat at Portmore Lough in Aghalee, Co Antrim.

The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) was awarded £50k towards the enhancement of the wet grassland habitat at Portmore Lough near Aghalee.

Portmore Lough is managed as a key recovery area for lapwings and other breeding wading birds in NI.

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The Alpha Programme, distributes funding through the Landfill Communities Fund to a range of community led and biodiversity projects within a 15-mile radius of the landfill site at Mullaghglass on the outskirts of Lisburn..

The Portmore Lough reserve is owned and managed by RSPB NI and designated as an ASSI, SPA, Ramsar and Local Nature Reserve for wintering wildfowl, terrestrial invertebrates, common terns and breeding waders. It has a variety of different habitats: a freshwater lough, surrounded by large reedbed, fen, wet woodlands, and a substantial area of wet grassland, managed for breeding wading birds such as lapwings and snipe.

The project aims to enhance the breeding and feeding areas for these birds through extending the area of open water and creating further shallow pools. The work will also include erecting 1.2km of predator-proof fencing.

Donnell Black, RSPB NI Portmore Lough Site Manager said: “It will enable us to undertake ecological works.”

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Lurgan Town FC were awarded £49,740 to upgrade floodlighting on their 3G pitch and car park. The Club, established in 1988 currently has over 600 members, providing an important hub for the community, with a particular focus on youth engagement, health & wellbeing and disabled sport.

MLA Carla Lockhart welcomed the funding for Lurgan Town FC.

Related topics:Carla LockhartRSPB NI