From the pages of the Down Recorder, March 23, 1994

From the pages of the Down Recorder, March 23, 1994

20 March 2024

DOWNPATRICK – The future role of the Downpatrick hospitals will be made public early next week by the province’s Health Minister, Baroness Denton.

And local hospital campaigners are confident that she will give the green light for the continued delivery of acute medical care at the Downe Hospital and Downpatrick Maternity Unit.

The Baroness has been working closely with her senior civil servants over the past few months, sifting through the various submissions which the Department has received, and she is expected to make her decision known at a special press conference next Tuesday morning.

Sources close to the Department are remaining tight-lipped about what the Baroness is going to say, but it seems almost certain that her recent visit to the local hospitals convinced her of the need for acute services to be delivered locally to the people in Down District.

And it is also understood that she is aware of the need for local services to be delivered on the one site at the Downshire Hospital’s Ardglass Road complex.

Down Community Health Committee official, Mrs Denise Fitzsimmons, says she is confident the Minister will have good news for the people of Down District.

NEWCASTLE – The Housing Executive has vowed to continue searching for housing land in Newcastle after being refused permission to build a 25-home mini-estate in the town.

Local planners have refused to allow the Executive to build on a three-acre site between the Castlewellan and Dundrum Road because the development would be “contrary to the Down Area Plan.”

The decision is a blow to the Executive which has admitted there is a shortage of available land for public sector development in the Newcastle area.

Now the Executive has turned its attention to an area on the Dundrum Road and is currently engaged in negotiations with a landowner.

However, an Executive spokesman admitted that while the decision is “disappointing” there are no plans to appeal the planning refusal.

DOWNPATRICK – Chimneys in Model Farm Estate houses in Downpatrick are to be urgently inspected after a second upstairs fire in the area.

The Housing Executive announced that British Coal will check metal flues, fitted to all homes heated by glass-fronted fires, after receiving the company’s report into a fire at Colmcille Road six weeks ago.

On Monday, the Fire Brigade was called to a bedroom fire at Ballymote Walk, and a spokesman for the executive admitted the two incidents appeared to be alike.

“It’s a similar type of fire”, he said yesterday, “but we are still waiting on the formal report from the Fire Authority into the cause of the first fire.”

The Brigade’s Lisburn headquarters could not confirm if Monday afternoon’s blaze began as a result of the chimney flue. The Executive said they would examine this incident and all other chimneys in the area.

“We will be carrying out an investigation to determine the cause of this fire,” said the spokesman. “We already have a programme of inspections for this type of installation.”

Last Friday it was revealed that the “technical” British Coal report into the fire at Mrs Rosanna Murphy’s home on February 10 could not determine the exact cause of the outbreak, which destroyed the house and most of her possessions.

SAINTFIELD – A councillor has warned that “conservation status” for towns must be taken seriously by the authorities if they want local support.

Mr Sam Osborne made the call last week, adding that granting conservation status to Killyleagh has brought advantages, but also a downside in the form of extra, costly planning restrictions.

Speaking in Saintfield, which is expecting status sometime this year, Mr Osborne said unless the scheme is followed up with proper financial support, it would be better not to grant status.

He said that Killyleagh, which was made a conservation area a year ago, has seen a change in planning priorities to preserve the village, saying: “That may be alright, but there are times it comes up against you.”

He continued that the idea of maintaining the character of a place was a good one, but did cost some people too much to carry out, which pointed to a lack of continuing support for it in the form of grants.

DOWNPATRICK – They were billing it as the party of the year. They were wrong, St Patrick’s Day 1994 was the biggest thing to hit Downpatrick in more than a decade.

If there was ever a day when the people of the district came together for one massive carnival, festival, jamboree, or whatever – call it what you like – this was it Downpatrick had never seen anything like it.

The only thing missing was St Patrick himself. For the first time in several years, the patron saint was not there to lead the parade. In his place, though, was Dichu, the Irish chieftain converted by Patrick to Christianity, who led the procession accompanied by his faithful Irish wolfhound.

St Patrick’s absence didn’t matter.

Thousands of people from all over the district, and beyond, poured into the town like never before. It was hard to imagine Downpatrick could accommodate such huge numbers. The streets literally groaned under the weight of the enormous crowd, who had come to enjoy a day out and were not to be disappointed.

BALLYNAHINCH – Traders in Ballynahinch have this week rounded on Department of Environment officials for giving the impression that Ballynahinch’s town centre is closed to through traffic.

Chamber of Commerce president, Mr Graham Smyth, said traders are angry that radio bulletins suggested the town centre was a “no go area” during work on a new traffic management system.

Trade has suffered and the road diversion signs used by the DoE are also misleading, he said on Monday evening.

“Certain areas are not open to traffic but that does not mean people cannot come into the town to do their normal shopping Traders are angry at the moment and understandably so, but hopefully the work will be completed soon.

“There is hardship and inconvenience at the moment, but traffic flow should be improved and life will be made a lot easier for pedestrians.”

ARDGLASS – An Ardglass councillor has expressed his concern at the risks to the livelihoods of small inshore fishermen posed by the planned Strangford Lough Marine Reserve.

Councillor Dermot Curran said this week that because the proposed reserve extends outside the lough and almost to Sheepland harbour near Ardglass, many inshore fishermen are worried their way of life will be at risk.

He told a meeting of Down Council on Monday night that he would like a delegation of fishermen to meet with the Client Services Committee next wwk to register their concerns.

He was supported by councillors John Ritchie and John Doris who felt people with a legitimate interest in exploiting the lough should be protected, while the lough should be protected from those interested in exploiting its resources.

DOWNPATRICK – The future of the controversial St Patrick’s Visitors Centre will be decided at a meeting in Dublin on Friday.

The Board of the International Fund for Ireland is meeting in the Irish capital where it will debate a request for a grant of £1.25m towards the £5m cost of the Downpatrick-based proposal.

Friday’s meeting, which is only a preliminary request for support from the Downpatrick Regeneration Project, is essential to the centre’s development, given that government financial backing is not available.