From the pages of the Down Recorder, February 10, 1993

From the pages of the Down Recorder, February 10, 1993

8 February 2023

DOWNPATRICK – Plans are being drawn up for the major expansion of Downpatrick’s only shopping centre.

Consideration is being given to the provision of additional shops at the Downtown Shopping Centre along with the upgrading of the Superite Prices supermarket.

The project is being undertaken by J & J Haslett Ltd, the major shareholders of the Lower Market Street enterprise, and this week the firm’s managing director, Mr John Millar, revealed that the development is still at an exploratory stage.

“We are still very much in the early stages of considering how to make the best possible use of the space at our disposal and the upgrading of existing facilities,” he said yesterday.

“It is impossible to talk in precise detail until our plans have been finalised and planning approval has been granted.”

The supermarket and almost a dozen associated firms in the shopping centre began their business operation on the former railway station site in 1972.

Since then the extensive car parking facilities behind the main building have been more than doubled in size by the Department of the Environment.

This is being seen as one of the attractions to locating the much discussed St Patrick’s Heritage Centre in the area, close to Down Cathedral and Down County Museum.

NEWCASTLE – The battle over illuminated signs at Newcastle’s Kentucky Fried Chicken outlet has been aired before the Planning Appeals Commission.

Representatives of the holders of the fast food chain’s Northern Ireland franchise contested a DoE decision to refuse planning permission for the signs at a hearing in Down Council’s offices on Thursday.

Outlying the case for the Planning Service, Mr Richard McAuley said he believed the DoE acted correctly in refusing permission for the illuminated signs.

He claimed that the Kentucky Fried Chicken signs represented “an incongruous and dominant feature in the street scene which would be visible for a considerable distance and detract from the quality of the environment.”

Mr McAuley added that the Department are opposed to both the street-facing sign above the outlet’s entrance and a projecting illuminated sign further up.

ARDGLASS – A call has been made this week for the Northern Ireland Housing Executive to investigate claims that houses at an Ardglass housing estate are sinking.

The call has been made by the village’s prospective Independent candidate in the forthcoming local government elections, Mr Paddy Connor.

He says the Executive should determine whether or not the houses which back onto the Mill River are sinking, before Down Council introduces its proposed increase in the domestic rate.

Mr Connor said both bodies could raise rents and rates respectively, without taking into account the conditions in which many people have to live.

Last week, Mr Connor showed land adjacent to a gable wall at the estate had sunk at least two and half inches. He also claimed that the foundations of a number of fence posts had moved and plaster cracked in another gable wall.

He called on Down Council to pipe the water in the river, which runs into the village harbour, in order to cure the alleged sinking problem and make the area safer for children.

DOWNPATRICK – Downpatrick Folk Club has been forced to close its doors for the first time in 17 years because the premises do not meet stringent new fire regulations.

And now the club is facing a lengthy list of modifications and a hefty bill in the region of £5,000 before it can reopen.

The Pillarwell Lane premises were closed after Down Council officials told club committee members that they could not issue an entertainments licence for the building until alterations are made in accordance with new fire regulations.

The tightened fire code means that the club will have to obtain a new fire escape, a new fire alarm system, rearrange the seating, have the doors widened and totally rewire the building.

This new financial burden comes just months after the club suffered a series of burglaries that forced officials to spend several thousand pounds on increased security measures.

BALLYNAHINCH – Traders in Ballynahinch have given the thumbs-down to a road by-pass for the town, it has been claimed.

Members of Ballynahinch Chamber of Commerce have been told that traders in the heart of the town’s commercial area are “overwhelmingly opposed” to a by-pass.

Out of a survey of 49 traders in Main Street and High Street, only two are in favour of the by-pass scheme put forward by the town’s Regeneration Committee two weeks ago.

The survey was conducted by Chamber president, Mr Billy Alexander, who said the findings indicated the high level of hostility towards the proposal.

But Mr Alexander’s claims brought an immediate response from regeneration committee chairman, Mr Billy Conn, who repeated his assertion of a fortnight ago that a by-pass is vital to the town’s future prosperity.

The argument came to a head at a Chamber meeting last Wednesday night when Mr Alexander warned that a by-pass within the next few years would be a “total disaster” for Ballynahinch.

NEWCASTLE – A major survey is to be carried out to discover why sand is disappearing from Newcastle’s famous beaches.

The National Trust is concerned that large amounts of sand are being washed from the beach between the resort and Murlough Nature Reserve near Dundrum and not replaced. At the same time there is evidence of significant beach development at Ballykinler.

In recent years Trust officials have recorded a steady decline in the amount of sand on the beach and are hoping the two-year survey will reveal the reason and if the trend is permanent.

One theory which is being put forward for the sand loss is the building of Newcastle Centre and the north promenade, with their associated rock armouring which could be altering wave patterns along the famous coastline.

Particularly concerned about the problem is the Trust’s Regional Conservation Officer, Mrs Jo Whatmough, a resident of Dundrum and former warden of the Murlough Reserve.

Mrs Whatmough believes the survey will give a better picture of what is happening on the Dundrum Bay coastline and particularly whether the sand will return to the beaches.

DOWNPATRICK – The prospect of a new £5m St Patrick’s Heritage Centre being established in Downpatrick came a step closer this week when Down councillors gave an enthusiastic, but cautious welcome to the scheme.

A number of members said the success of the ambitious project could only be guaranteed if appropriate capital funding could be secured and Down District’s roads infrastructure dramatically upgraded.

However, although the council has agreed to move forward, it has emerged that an environmental impact study will have to be carried out to discover the full implications of the proposal, before work on the 3,500 square feet building, at The Grove area of Lower Market Street, can proceed.

DOWN DISTRICT – Details of an economic blueprint to lift Down District out of the depths of recession, have been unveiled this week by the Down Economic Development Agency.

The new initiative for future financial injection and growth in the area, comes almost a year after the Agency launched its rolling strategy to encourage the creation and development of more indigenous industries in Down District.

The agency was established in March last year, to promote the area as an ideal location for inward investment, as part of an overall economic development strategy.

The new comprehensive action plan and investment strategy, compiled by the Lancashire and Brussels-based firm of EAP consultants, is shortly to be presented to the Province’s Economy Minister, Mr Robert Atkins, for his approval.

Agency chairman, Mr Malachi Curran, says the report takes the rolling strategy analysis a step further, offering a precise understanding of the key trends in the local economy.