Downpatrick may get a new business forum

Downpatrick may get a new business forum

28 September 2016

A MEETING was held in Downpatrick last night to gauge the appetite for a new body to represent the business community and discuss how to plan for the development of the town.

Denvir’s Coaching Inn was the venue for an information evening chaired by Colin Neill, the chief executive of Hospitality Ulster and a former Ballymena town centre manager, and addressed by Patricia Freedman, a board member of the successful Cathedral Quarter Business Investment District in Belfast.

Stephen Magorrian, managing director of The Horatio Group which owns Denvir’s, helped organise the event and said the main aim was not to discuss current issues, but to look to the future to see how town can develop.

Speaking ahead of the meeting, he said the aim was to have “positive, forward thinking discussion” focusing on what can be done to reinvigorate the town centre, with local businesses playing a full and active part.

Mr Magorrian said given there will be significant change in the workings of local and central government over the next few years and with Newry, Mourne and Down Council starting to get to grips with the major issues facing the district, “it’s essential it hears the voice of the Downpatrick business community through a representative body.”

He continued: “It is essential to have a unified business voice. There is a very active Chamber of Commerce in Newcastle and we need an organisation like this in Downpatrick. I discussed organising the meeting with Brendan Kearney who was chairman of the town’s old Chamber and we are hoping for a positive response.

“If we are going to set up a new body to represent the views and interests of the business community, it is important it has the right people on it and can identify some form of revenue stream to sustain it.”

Mr Magorrian believes it is important for people to think differently, confirming members of the Newry business community, which has an active Chamber of Commerce, were invited to last night’s meeting.

“We want to give people some thought about what a business organisation might look like and hope that at the end of the meeting we will have established a steering committee to go away and consider what might be possible in terms of setting something up and what the aspirations of such an organisation should be,” he explained.

“That group will then come back at a later stage to a larger body to say this is what we are recommending and we can then discuss the way forward. Downpatrick is now part of a huge council area and we would like to see businesses helping drive the town’s success.”

Mr Magorrian said the first stage is trying to see if there is an appetite within the business community to do this, pointing to previous attempts to set up a traders’ body which failed for various reasons.

“Any new business group must have teeth and the local council must provide assurances that it is going to listen to what it has to say and engage with it. Hopefully people will be motivated enough to invest a bit of time and want to get involved in a new body which can play a very important role in the future development of the town, working alongside others,” he said.

South Down MP Margaret Ritchie said last night’s meeting heralded an opportunity for Downpatrick’s business community to establish an economic plan and begin a conversation about the future of the town. She said Downpatrick has an “irrefutable case” to build a critical mass of business and commerce with the aim of sustaining existing jobs and creating new employment opportunities, with everyone reaffirming their pride and confidence in the town.