Causeway Coast and Glens Council receives formal plans for RAF memorial plinth in Portballintrae

The applicant, the Bushmills Through the Wars Committee, is seeking to install a permanent RAF commemorative memorial, comprising a polished granite plinth and engraved tablets, on an existing concrete platform.

The memorial will commemorate the crew of RAF Vickers Wellington Aircraft DV664, which crashed close to the site on 28 November 1943 during a training exercise.

The memorial would be located immediately adjacent to the public pedestrian route linking Salmon Rock Beach Car Park, Three Quarter Bridge and Runkerry Beach.

The planning application follows a meeting of Council’s Leisure and Development Committee, in February, where members approved and endorsed its submission.

An accompanying Planning Statement said there is currently no permanent feature recognising the event, despite the site’s historical significance.

The Bushmills Through the Wars Committee has therefore developed proposals for a permanent memorial to provide an “appropriate place of remembrance whilst preserving an important element of local wartime history”.

“The memorial will enable relatives, local residents, visitors and future generations to reflect upon the sacrifice of those who lost their lives and improve public awareness of the site’s historical significance,” the statement added.

“The chosen location has a direct association with the event and occupies the former concrete base of a Cold War submarine indicator loop substation, creating an appropriate historical relationship between the memorial and its setting.

“By utilising an existing concrete platform, the proposal minimises physical intervention whilst creating a respectful feature that contributes to the area’s cultural and historical significance.”