DOWNPATRICK — Plans for a major four-lane carriageway through the heart of Downpatrick’s town centre were unveiled this week by anxious Department of Environment officials.
The scheme is the result of ten years of research into the town’s planning and environmental future — a future which has now become totally dependent on a traffic plan solution.
The details of the new road proposals were given at a special two-hour press briefing on Friday afternoon and Department of Environmental officials admit they are anxiously awaiting public response.
The speculation that the town was to get a ‘ring road’ has been quashed by the proposal — in fact, say officials, it was never really on the cards — and the new system is simply a means of distributing the traffic inside the town rather than re-routing outside the town limits.
Eleven separate routes for a new road were studied and the choice narrowed down to four. The pick of those four has now been decided after years of exploratory talks and detailed investigations. Ironically, the final choice is of a route which differs only slightly from one suggested by the 1971 Downpatrick Area Plan.
The new road will begin, effectively, from the entrance to the Meadowlands housing estate in Church Street and will run behind existing Church Street premises on a widening parallel, into the town centre.
It will emerge onto the lower part of Scotch Street, across the rear of the Town Hall building and into Irish Street. Use of the present entrance to the new Irish Street car park will probably be made to swing the road through the rear of Market Street into St Patrick’s Avenue and on into the Ballydugan Road.
KILLYLEAGH — A row is brewing in Killyleagh over proposals to open a pool hall in the town’s High Street.
Angry residents in the area have drawn up a petition objecting to it being opened because they say that area has already suffered severely at the hands of vandals.
Local councillor, Mr Sam Osborne, explained that 17 objectors had signed the petition because they were concerned that the pool hall would bring with it a sinister element.
He said people in the immediate vicinity of the empty premises to be turned into a pool room were afraid to go to bed at the weekends and they fear this could escalate.
Mr Osborne stressed he did not object to the idea of the pool room, he hoped it would take young people off the street, but he felt it was being sited in the wrong area of town.
BALLYHORNAN — Planners’ refusal to allow a new caravan site at Ballyhornan will have a major effect on Down Council’s development programmes for the area, it was claimed this week.
The claim was made by Downpatrick councillor, Mr Eddie McGrady, who said planners were wrong to issue such a decision until a general development policy had been worked out.
Mr McGrady also said he could not understand why there should not be potential for a new holiday location on the Lecale coast, where a number of such locations already existed.
He stressed that in the absence of an Area Plan the council should have a policy on this.
A planning spokesman confirmed there would be a policy on locations for caravan development when the area plan was published.
BALLYNAHINCH — Mrs Margaret Atkins, wife of the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Mr Humphrey Atkins, made a surprise visit to the Plessey Telecommunications factory in Ballynahinch on Tuesday morning.
While her husband was at Stormont trying to thrash out the province’s problems in the round table talks, Mrs Atkins was having an extensive two-hour tour of the factory, under the guidance of senior Plessey officials.
Mrs Atkins arrived shortly after 9.30am and after a lengthy talk with senior management, including Mr Harold Davies, regional director, and Mr Gerry O’Neill, manager at Ballynahinch, she was shown around the factory.
She met and spoke to many of the factory’s 400-plus employees, sharing jokes and listening and enquiring about what kind of work was done.
CROSSGAR — Sgt Matthew Cuffey, of 1st Crossgar Boys’ Brigade, has won the Northern Ireland Squad Commander’s Shield at the annual squad drill finals in Omagh on Saturday.
Matthew and the 1st Crossgar Company were representing Down Battalion at the finals, and although the squad finished third — three points behind hat-trick winners 1st Castlederg — there was some consolation in the squad commander’s success.
This very high honour for Down Battalion and indeed, has been won four times previously by Crossgar boys since the competition’s inception in 1963.
Down Battalion officers were delighted at the results, and congratulations are extended to the company’s captain, Mr R Dickson, and drill officers, Mr D Nesbitt, and to the boys themselves.
DUNDRUM — The controversy over whether a section of lane way in Dundrum would remain open is almost over — and it’s now virtually certain that it will not be closed.
Members of the Dundrum and District Community Committee were told of this at their monthly meeting in the Bay Inn on Tuesday night by the secretary, who read letters received from the estate agents and solicitors of the Lord Downshire Estate, who previously owned the lane.
The controversy, highlighted by the Recorder last week, had flared up when local residents sensed Mr Albert Donnelly, the owner of the caravan sites on either side of the lane, which runs from Castle Hill to the junction with the Dromara Road, was preparing to close the lane.
Pillars had been erected on the lane and residents were adamant gates would not be put up to block their right of way. The lane had been sold by Lord Downshire’s estate to Mr Donnelly, but there had been some doubt whether a right of way clause had been ed.
This has now been cleared up by the letters from Lord Downshire’s estate agents and solicitors, who pointed out that the lane way had been sold but that the right of way was reserved. The letters added that they hoped this would allay the fears of villagers.
The committee, however, have decided to seek legal assistance on the matter to clear it up permanently.
ARDGLASS — Hopes are high this week that the EEC will grant aid a fish processing unit in Ardglass.
Euro MP, Mr John Hume, has taken up the case in Brussels and yesterday he reported that the ECC Commission was “carefully” considering grant aiding the locally financed scheme.
One of the biggest problems with the fishing industry at Ardglass has been the lack of fish processing facilities, despite the economic benefits from it.
Mr Hume told the Recorder yesterday he was “fairly confident” the EEC would give aid to a fish offal plant at the harbour.
He has been in constant touch with local fishermen in the area and yesterday announced another major breakthrough in his battle to secure a better deal for them.
In reply to a parliamentary question he tabled in Brussels, Mr Hume has been told a study of fishing industry in Northern Ireland to be undertaken.
“I regard this as a welcome first step and hope the study will concentrate on developing the potential of the fishing industry in Northern Ireland with a view to greater investment in its development,” he said.
Mr Hume is at present awaiting a reply from the European Commission on “the scientific justification” for its ban on barring fishermen off the Co Down coast.