Consultation meeting with vision to boost Downpatrick

19 October 2022

AMBITIOUS plans to regenerate Downpatrick and help restore its place as one of Northern Ireland’s leading county towns will be outlined at a consultation event in the town tonight.

A draft document entitled “Restore Our County Town” will be unveiled at Denvir’s Coaching Inn this evening at 7.30pm by South Down MLA Patrick Brown.

He will chair the consultation and be joined on the panel by Downpatrick councillor Cadogan Enright, Eamonn Connolly of Newry BID and Linda Beers from the Down Business Centre who will add their experiences to the discussion.

At the core of the document are initiatives to drive economic development with the detail of next month’s formal launch coming as the new Downpatrick regeneration working group prepares to hold its first meeting in the town this morning.

In addition, it promises to deliver on the Alliance party’s Assembly election promise to “restore our county town” and suggests that going forward, a so-called business improvement district could be formed in Downpatrick which would increase opportunities for drawing down public and private funding streams.

Other key priorities include protecting the future of the Downe Hospital and the Downshire Civic Centre and championing infrastructure projects that can help address town centre congestion, a nettle which has not been grasped in decades.

The document’s 25 strategic projects are grouped under key themes of economic development and regeneration, environment and public services, community, arts and tourism and infrastructure.

Ahead of tonight’s event, Mr Brown said the Downpatrick masterplan released in 2011 was a previous attempt by Down Council and former Department of Regional Development to regenerate the area.

But he said few of the plan’s ambitions have been delivered “with many falling by the wayside after the merger of local government in 2014.”

Mr Brown continued: “A new Downpatrick regeneration working group has been established by Newry, Mourne and Down Council and I believe Alliance’s new strategy document could help shape some of the thinking of this group and provide a clear vision for the town.

“This document has been informed by months of engagement with

Downpatrick businesses, community groups and residents and represents what we feel is an ambitious yet achievable plan to help restore our county town.”

Mr Brown said Downpatrick is the largest town in South Down, boasting a wealth of potential including world leading tourism assets, a solid entrepreneurial base, a history of strong public sector employment, strong commuter links to Belfast and a beautiful rural hinterland.

But he said the area has been “severely neglected over recent decades” with little of the 2011 masterplan delivered and a general feeling from locals that Downpatrick is the district’s “forgotten town”.

Mr Brown claimed there are plans to displace good public sector jobs from the Downshire Civic Centre by building what he labelled an “unnecessary new council headquarters in Newry”.

Mr Brown added: “There are also no major capital projects planned for Downpatrick, whilst Newry is due to receive upwards of £60m in coming years to regenerate its city centre.

“This is first draft of the new strategy and I firmly believe that any plan for Downpatrick’s regeneration must be bottom-up and led by its people. Therefore, we want feedback on what’s in the document currently and ideas for what may be missing.”

The draft plan can be viewed at https://www.allianceparty.org/restore_our_county_town

Tweets by @TheDownRecorder