Community plan launched

Community plan launched

3 May 2017

THE first ever community plan for the Newry, Mourne and Down Council area aims to make life better for people across the district.

Two years in the making, those behind the blueprint insist people and organisations working together are central to the plan’s success, planning ahead to improve the key issues of health, education, employment, safety and the environment.

The aims of the plan are to highlight the challenges facing the area now and into the future and to empower communities to respond to these challenges and prioritise what matters to them.

Ratepayers, politicians and representatives from a host of statutory and voluntary organisations have had an input into the design of the plan and will evaluate its progress.

Authors of the report say the plan sets out to create an environment that supports collaboration, where everyone can work together towards achieving the same goals. They say the plan’s vision is to create a council area featuring strong, safe and vibrant communities where everyone has a good quality of life and access to opportunities, choices and high quality services which are sustainable, accessible and meet people’s needs.

Entitled Living Well Together, the plan sets out a vision of how public services can be better planned and delivered, with work underway to prepare a series of action plans to help deliver progress in priority areas.

They include ensuring everyone has a good start in life and fulfils their lifelong potential, enjoys good health and well-being, benefits from prosperous communities, enjoys a clean, good quality and sustainable environment and lives in respectful, safe and vibrant communities. There is also strong emphasis on promoting equality and tackling inequality.

Full of statistics, the community plan reveals that the council area has been showing signs of economic recovery following a particularly turbulent period during one of the worst recessions on record in Northern Ireland.

Just over 17 per cent of the district’s workforce is employed in the retail sector, with almost 14 per  cent employed in the health sector. Employment statistics for the construction and education sectors are 12.5 per cent and 9.95 per cent respectively.

Interestingly, the Newry, Mourne and Down Council area is home to the fourth largest share of VAT registered businesses in Northern Ireland, with small and medium-sized enterprises viewed as key drivers for local productivity growth, helping create new job opportunities.

Despite the impact of the recession and an almost 20 per cent reduction in the district’s construction workforce, this industry remains a major employer in the area, according to the new plan. Likewise, the agriculture, forestry and fishing industries employ the most people in these sectors anywhere in the Province.

The need to address the number of people on the waiting list for social housing across the council area is also highlighted in the plan with the need described as “high.” The highest areas which require new provision include Downpatrick, Newcastle, Castlewellan, Crossgar and Saintfield.

It is estimated that 72 per cent of the social housing waiting list comprises single and small family households, prompting the need for a significant number of one and two-bedroom dwellings.

Elsewhere, the plan highlights the need to tackle health inequalities and to put in place initiative to to support the 40 per cent of people across the district who have little or nor qualifications, to achieve academic success.

The plan also focuses on the district’s tourism potential which it describes as “enormous” given there are several Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty including Strangford Lough and the Mournes. The new plan reveals that 55 per cent of overnight trips to the district are for holiday purposes, with the figure the second highest in Northern Ireland behind the Causeway Coast and Glens.