From the pages of the Down Recorder, April 13, 1994

From the pages of the Down Recorder, April 13, 1994

10 April 2024

DOWNPATRICK – Downpatrick’s Market Street car park could soon have new gates erected at both entrances to prevent it from being taken over by members of the travelling community.

The gates were last erected a number of years ago when special provision was made for lorries delivering goods to the Superite store and mini-buses transporting people to the Market Street Day Centre.

The call for new gates comes just days after the last of a group of travellers left the Downpatrick car park and has been made by local councillor, Mr Jack McIlheron.

And he has also called on senior Department of Environment chiefs to meet with Eastern Health Board officials and representatives from Superite.

His proposal follows a statement by the Department which says because it does not own all of the Lower Market Street car park, it is not in a position to erect gates.

A spokesman confirmed on Monday that gates could not be put up because there are a number of other agencies which use the car park entrances.

However, the official line has not cut much ice with Mr McIlheron. He says a meeting between the users of the car park is a “matter of priority.”

BALLYNAHINCH – Ballynahinch has taken a major step forward in its bid to rejuvenate the town’s economic fortunes and attract inward investment to the area.

During a special meeting in the town’s Community Centre on Monday evening, a new Economic Development Committee was elected and is to be spearheaded by Mr Tony McCusker.

Over the weeks and months ahead, the committee will formulate its ideas to come up with a scheme which it is hoped will attract a major slice of funding from the IFI.

Monday’s meeting was chaired by Down Council chairman, Miss Margaret Ritchie, and Mr Liam Higgins, the areas’s Economic Development Officer, who said the local authority is “totally committed” to community improvement and enhancement throughout the district.

KILLYLEAGH – Alan Morrison, Killyleagh’s two-wheeled speed king, has made a sensational start to his new career on the tarmac.

Morrison, the former Irish motocross champion, showed blistering speed at two meetings at Kirkistown last week to leave more experienced riders trailing in his wake.

Riding a 250cc HOnda, he finished third and fourth in two races at the Ards peninsula track on Easter Monday.

And on Saturday, he rode the same machine to finish 9th in one of the races and missed qualifying for an international race by a mere two seconds.

DOWNPATRICK – Four girls from St Mary’s High School are proving that motor engineering is not the male-dominated field it once was.

Fifteen year olds Zoe Hughes, Sharon Kearney, Katrina McKenna and Lindsay Shorten, are all attempting to win BP Oil’s national Buildacar competition with a three-wheeled, single-seat car which they are running up in the school technology department.

The four will be Northern Ireland’s only entry in Buildacar which offers £12,000  in cash prizes and several section awards.

The St Mary’s girls started work on their car, which they call Tricetops, before Christmas, and since then have spent every Friday afternoon and most lunchtimes on the project.

Tricetops will be environmentally friendly for, as well as a petrol engine, it is fitted with an electric motor that can e usedin fume-filled inner city areas.

CARRYDUFF – Carryduff’s USPCA shelter will not be overwhelmed with an influx of extra animals following the closure of the charity’s outpost at Warrenpoint.

The Warrenpoint shelter, the collection point for many oiled birds washed up on local beaches in January and the refuge for ‘Sam’, the dog targeted in last year’s Downpatrick castration attack, closed at the end of March.

The USPCA said this week that only a handful of cats, dogs and birds have been transferred to Carryduff and no new staff are needed there to deal with them.

“Our ultimate aim is that the service to the animals in our area will improve,” said the USPCA’s Director, Mr Richard Wilson.

“We will shortly be appointing an assistant inspector to help the existing inspector in that area, Mr Michael Gillen, and they will also be equipped with an ambulance, providing a better emergency cover in the area,” he said.

CASTLEWELLAN – Work is due to start this week on a £500,000 foreign language and accommodation centre in Castlewellan.

Contractors from Dunmore Construction are expected to move into Castle Avenue to begin demolishing a number of buildings to make way for what is the core project in the Castlewellan regeneration project.

The new complex will extend from Wilson’s estate agency to Claremont Avenue and has been designed to blend in with the natural architecture of the town.

In addition to the language centre, the project will have mini-conference facilities, two shops and bed and breakfast accommodation of youth hostel standard.

The building, designed by Newcastle architect, Mr Seamus McMullan, will be two-stories high along Castle Avenue rising to three stories on Claremont Avenue.

DOWNPATRICK – A Downpatrick secondary school has received a major boost this week from Department of Education inspectors.

De La Salle Secondary School, which has almost 500 pupils on the register, is served by 32 teachers and their leading role in the school’s development over the past number of years has been highlighted.

In a comprehensive 16-page report which was made public this week – 13 years after the last major inspection – the school is praised for its quality of education provision.

The report says the school provides an “orderly and caring environment” for its pupils and highlights the confidence in the work of the school expressed by parents.

CROSSGAR – Crossgar has been identified as the best site for a new Mid-Down Integrated Primary School, it has emerged.

The steering group formed to progress the school plan, recently unanimously agreed that Crossgar would be the most accessible for all interested families, and attract enough pupils to ensure viability.

The search is now on for a suitable green-fifeld site to build a school, and it has been confirmed that several have been identified and are now being investigated by committee members with a view to purchase.

Committee chairman, Mr Ultan McGill, said they wanted to place the school in Crossgar. “The site would be within the area designated for planning under the area plan,” he said, adding that buying it would be a “significant step” towards founding the school.

“Until the site is fixed, you cannot tell people exactly where the school is going to be. Saintfield people were reluctant to send their kids as 

far as Downpatrick, so we should attract more from there, but we may also lose some from the Ardglass area,” he continued.

DOWNPATRICK – Downpatrick beat off competition from Belfast, Hilltown and Warrenpoint as the most 

attractive site for a proposed oil waste processing plant.

After a lengthy examination of various sites, Warrenpoint firm Macwaste, which has made a planning application to construct the plant, decided that Downpatrick met or exceeded all the safety and environmental requirements.

The operation planned for the Killough Road Industrial Estate involves processing the waste which comes from the compulsory periodic cleaning of tanks holding petrol.