Ards and North Down is a local government district in Northern Ireland.

The local authority is Ards and North Down Borough Council.

The first election for the new district council was originally due to take place in May 2009, but on April 25, 2008, Shaun Woodward, Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, announced that the scheduled 2009 district council elections were to be postponed until 2011.

[5] The first elections took place on 22 May 2014 and the council acted as a shadow authority until 1 April 2015.

At a meeting of the shadow authority on 15 December 2014, councillors voted in favour of changing the council's name to East Coast Borough Council, and to submit an application to the Department of the Environment to change the name with effect as of 1 April 2015.