Castlereagh (borough)
Template:NI district Castlereagh Borough Council is a local council in Northern Ireland. It is a largely urban Borough bordering Belfast. Unusually, it has no natural borough centre, largely consisting of a series of suburbs of Belfast in the Castlereagh Hills to the south-east of the City with a small rural area to the South of the Borough. The main centres of population are Carryduff, 5 miles (8 km) south of Belfast city centre and Dundonald, 5 miles (8 km) east of it. The population totals nearly 66,500.The Castlereagh Borough Council area consists of 4 electoral areas: Castlereagh Central, South, East and West. In the last elections in 2005, 23 members were elected from the following political parties: 13 Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), 4 Ulster Unionist Party (UUP), 4 Alliance Party and 2 Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP). The current Mayor is Councillor Joanne Bunting (DUP) and the Deputy Mayor is Councillor David Drysdale (UUP).The next election is due to take place in May 2009.
Castlereagh and the city of Kent in Washington in the United States signed up as sister cities partners on 1 August 2000.
In elections for the Westminster Parliament the area is split between the East Belfast constituency, the South Belfast constituency and the Strangford constituency. It has previously also had a section included in the North Down constituency. It is not to be confused with Castlerea, a town in County Roscommon in the Republic of Ireland.
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