Ballynahinch traders hit out over ‘stop and go’ street work

Ballynahinch traders hit out over ‘stop and go’ street work

23 October 2013

WORK on Ballynahinch’s £2m town centre regeneration scheme is hitting business owners in the pocket, it has been claimed.

Several members of the business community are concerned that contractors are not starting and finishing work in the same part of the town.

Traders say contractors are moving between Main Street and the town square as work continues on a raft of improvements designed to rejuvenate Ballynahinch town centre in a bid to attract new retail investment and attract more shoppers.

Aspects of the public realm scheme include new paving, street lighting, planters, seating, signs and upgrading a number of crossing points for pedestrians. Telephone lines and power cables are being buried underground and while traders welcome what’s happening, they believe the scheme needs to be better managed.

Down Council shares traders’ concerns and has raised them with consultants overseeing the multi-million pound scheme, with local authority officials insisting that when work starts on a piece of work in a particular area or street, it is finished before workmen go elsewhere.

Mr. Jackson Charles, owner of one of Ballynahinch’s oldest businesses, said customers have not been able to park outside his Main Street shop for the past six weeks and it’s costing him money.

“The workmen are here one day and gone the next,” he explained. “I have been told the men have been told to finish the town square so the weekly market can return there.

“The market is held for half a day once a week and the traders do not pay rates. Yet those who do pay rates have to put up with the mess outside our shops which is driving customers away. Something is wrong,” declared Mr. Charles.

The newsagent said he depends on passing trade, explaining the work taking place directly outside his shop means his customers can’t stop so they are going elsewhere.

“No one has been able to park outside my shop for some considerable time and this has resulted in a major loss in business. My concern is the way the regeneration scheme is being programmed. There are men in Main Street one day and then they disappear for several days.

“Workmen have now been told to finish the town square and leave Main Street in the state it’s in. There appears to be a lack of co-ordination on the ground and that needs to be addressed. I don’t blame the workmen for one moment as they are only being told what to do.”

Mr. Charles said when work starts in one part of the town, it should be completed before workmen move elsewhere and he hopes Down Council’s intervention on the issues will ensure it does not happen again.

Councillor Billy Walker, who works for Strangford MP Jim Shannon in Ballynahinch, said senior Down Council officials share the concerns of the town’s business community.

“Many businesses have suffered a major financial loss as a result of the streetscape scheme. While the majority of traders have no doubt it will benefit Ballynahinch, they are concerned about how it is being project managed on the ground,” he said.

Councillor Walker added: “Surely it would be better to focus on one part of the town, rather than jumping back and forward all the time.